Arizona, Here We Come

This is it! Our Great Adventure is finally beginning. All of the various components of the planning process have ended: the large (leaving our jobs, buying tickets, and planning an itinerary), the compact (packing for three months into one backpack), and the unnecessary (dying my hair a very vibrant shade of yellow). After so much time, effort, wine & Netflix (#Aviva's Apartment), it really is hard to believe our trip is  happening at last. I can only describe the feeling as equal parts exhiliration, excitement, incredulity, and terror. We have been dreaming of this for years, saving for a year, planning for months, and running last minute errands for the past few days, including a trip to the Goodwill bins (Tuesday), the aforementioned hair bleaching (Wednesday), and taking my road test (Thursday), all when my last day of work was Monday and Yishai's Tuesday. We still have a short weekend back in NY before we take off for the Southern Hemisphere, but it will be jam packed saying goodbyes, running last minute errands, and stuffing our packs.

As I type, we are on our way to Arizona for a week of visiting family and a brief excursion to the Grand Canyon. Domestic flights in the US these days are a testimony to the crumbling airline industry. It's pretty clear that a group of executives held a long meeting entitled "The Monetization of the Airbus: Commercial Flight Revenue Possibilities", or how to charge passengers for every possible thing. On this flight, we get complimentary drinks, headphones, and seatbelts, but everything else has a price tag: TV ($6), a movie ($8), Pringles ($3). My favorite menu option? From the "Spirits and More" section: Cosmopolitan- A stylish cocktail for the vodka lover, made with 100% natural Funkin Cosmopolitan Mixer. Comes in a metallic pouch.

I know this makes me sound old, but I remember when we used to decry airlines as cheap when they charged a dollar for a headset. Of course, who knows? Maybe ten years from now I'll be waxing nostalgic for the days when using the bathroom on a plane was free of charge. Of course, I have no right to complain given that we snagged these tickets for about half what they usually go for. Plane reinforced by corrugated aluminum? Possibly. Still worth it? Definitely.

So our plans for Arizona are as follows: We arrive in Tucson tonight (Thursday, Feb 2), at around 11 PM, assuming we make our connecting flight in Denver, despite sitting on the runway for nearly an hour. We'll be staying in my grandfather's spare room while we're in Tucson. Tomorrow we will try to scrape together two shabbos meals with the help of the one Kosher butcher in the Tucson area and the camping cookware we brought. My little sister Yael was amazing enough to bake and freeze us challas on Tuesday to bring with us, so worst case scenario we'll have some deli sandwiches, hummus and challah. We spend the weekend in Tucson with the fam, and then head out on Monday morning to the Grand Canyon, which is about a 5-6 hour drive. We'll be camping Monday night at one of the campgrounds about a mile from the South Rim. Tuesday morning we're hoping to hike halfway down and back up the canyon on one of the popular trails, and then drive back in to Phoenix (about 4-5 hours), where we'll be staying until our flight Thursday AM. We have drinks and a brunch planned with my mother's sister Amy and my uncle Jay and cousins Jimmy, Rosie and Ariel (Rosie's husband). I haven't seen anyone in that family in about ten years, so really looking forward to it. We'll let you know more as we do it!

Snowing in Denver