Monthly Archives

March 2017

Travel

My Trip to the Grand Canyon

March 28, 2017

Hey everyone, welcome to my last Arizona travel post!  I’m so sad to be almost done writing about such an incredible trip but I’m excited I got to share it with you all!  This one’s going to be about our day trip from Phoenix to the Grand Canyon so let’s get started.

From where we were staying, it was about three hours to the Grand Canyon, so not a bad drive to see such a cool and memorable place!  Even though the drive wasn’t too long, I was driving a huge pick-up truck so I was relieved when we finally got there.  We parked in the parking lot by the visitor center and got started on the main trail of the South Rim Visitor’s Center.  The trail goes for 12 miles but it’s paved and you can turn back at any point.  Because we were there on a week day, there weren’t a ton of people around so we got to see some wonderful views without feeling crowded!  We also had the perfect weather!  It was about 60 degrees or so and the skies were completely clear.  We lucked out with such a great day!

 

 

We spent a good amount of time on the trail because there are benches every once in a while and wonderful look-out points!  We brought a blanket with us because we didn’t know how cold it would end up being and it was nice to be able to warm up if we needed to!  When we were finished on the trail, we went inside the visitor’s center and the gift shop and they actually had some really cool souvenirs!  I found a really cool tin hiking mug but, unfortunately, they were under a park-wide power outage while we were there so we weren’t able to bring anything home with us.

If you’re traveling from Phoenix to the Grand Canyon, I would definitely recommend stopping somewhere along the way, like in Flagstaff!  We weren’t able to on our trip but it seemed like a nice stopping point to walk around or grab some food.  I hope you enjoyed my Arizona travel posts; I can’t wait to write some more in the summer!  See you next week!

Travel

Being a Tourist In: Scottsdale, Arizona

March 21, 2017

Hi, welcome back to Allison in Wonderland!  Today’s post is going to be another travel post about my spring break trip to Arizona.  If you haven’t checked out last week’s, I’d love it if you’d read it!  It’s all about the time I spent in Sedona, Arizona.  Let’s get started!

I’d never been to Scottsdale before this trip, so I was pumped when I realized I’d have enough time to visit this time around.  Before going, we looked up a couple things to do but mostly just decided to wing it.  Scottsdale is a really great city to just go with the flow and that’s exactly what we did!

We started out at a coffee shop/bike rental store called Regroup Coffee & Bicycles and rented the cutest bikes!  They let us choose whether we wanted pink, green, blue, or black ones so we picked the ones we wanted and were on our way.  We rode all around – visiting Old Town, the Fifth Avenue area, and everywhere in between!  We didn’t want to stop at a ton of shops so biking was the perfect way to get around.

After spending a couple hours in the sun, we decided to head to the Desert Botanical Garden which is also in Scottsdale.  This was something that was at the top of my list and I’m so glad we made it there!  It was amazing to see so many plants that we don’t see on the East Coast all in one place.  It was incredibly beautiful and we had the perfect weather to be able to enjoy being outside.

The last thing we did in Scottsdale was go to their new aquarium called OdySea!  It was on the smaller side but once you got in, it didn’t feel small.  The coolest part about it was the carousel feature they had.  We walked into a room that had a few rows of theatre seating and once everyone was seated, they did an introduction and then the room spun!  They showed us the shark tank, sea lion tank, and a tank with sea turtles.  It was a really cool feature and made the whole experience a million times more memorable!

With Scottsdale being so close to Phoenix, it was definitely worth the extra drive time.  I’m so glad we went!  If you’re visiting, I definitely recommend getting around by bike – it was so cool!  See you next week with my last Arizona travel post!

Travel

Being a Tourist In: Sedona, Arizona

March 14, 2017

Hi everyone and welcome to my first Arizona travel post.  This year, I spent spring break in Phoenix and the surrounding areas and I can’t wait to tell you all about it!

We flew out to Phoenix on a Sunday afternoon so we were lucky to have the whole week ahead of us!  On Monday, we started out in Sedona, Arizona.  I’d been there before, about ten years ago, so I was super excited for another trip back!  When we got there, we visited a beautiful church that’s built into the side of the red rock and it was incredible.  They actually hold a weekly service there and I was wishing we could’ve gone!  It was a really special experience to be in a place as amazing as that.

After visiting the church, we headed towards Midgley Bridge and walked around on a trail that starts at the top of the bridge.  The views in this area, and in Sedona in general, are breathtaking and this trail was just another example of the incredible scenery Arizona has!

 

Later, we grabbed lunch at a really cute place called 89Agave and walked over to where we were supposed to go for the jeep tour we booked.  We used the company Red Rock Western Jeep Tour and it was great!  The views were awesome and the guide was really knowledgable about the history of the area.  When we got to the top of where we were going, he let us out and we got to walk around on the rocks and look at different views than you would normally see at the bottom.  It was cool to me how one side of the canyon was all red rock and then the other side of the canyon was another, whiter type of rock.

When we got back from the jeep tour, we checked out some of the cute, western shops in the Sedona area.  After picking up a couple souvenirs, we headed home.  I would definitely recommend going to Sedona if you’re in the area, it’s amazing!  Even after visiting two times now, I would go back in a heartbeat.  See you next week with another travel post!

Things I'm Loving Right Now

iPhone 7 Plus Review

March 7, 2017

Hey everyone, welcome back to my blog!  Today, I’m going to dive into the spectrum of tech reviews!  I’ll be talking about all of the good and bad parts of my new iPhone 7 Plus; I hope you like it!

I got my new phone at the end of January, so I’ve had a little while to figure out if I like it or not and I love it!  I had the iPhone 6S before, so I didn’t think I’d notice many differences, but I have.  The screen is substantially bigger, so that provides a much better viewing experience for reading texts and emails.  It’s also really nice for going on my favorite apps, like Instagram and Snapchat!  Overall, the screen quality is just so nice that I can’t imagine going back to the smaller size.

Another major upgrade with this phone is the camera!  Not only is the quality a million times better, but Apple introduced a new feature called Portrait mode.  In this mode, the camera focuses on the subject and slightly blurs the background as if you were using a DSLR!  This is the feature I’m the most excited about and I’ve been using it a ton!

One negative that I’ve noticed about the iPhone 7 Plus is that it takes about twice as long to charge as my old one did.  That makes sense because of the size difference but it’s not something I thought about before purchasing the phone.  Luckily, that’s the only negative thing I’ve found so far!

I hope you enjoyed my mini tech review!  Leave a comment if you’re thinking about getting an iPhone 7 Plus and have any questions for me; I’d love to get back to you.  Have a great week!