48 Hours in Arizona

Hi there, happy Friday! In the midst of all the wedding planning craziness, we took a little break to fly to Arizona for my uncle’s wedding last weekend. It was such a beautiful time – keep reading to hear all about it!

It was quite a whirlwind trip! We left for the airport around 3am on Saturday morning not quite knowing what to expect when we got to the airport. This was our first time flying, or using any type of mass transit, since COVID-19 so we didn’t know what we were walking into. Overall, I’d say the airport was exactly the same. Other than everyone wearing face masks and attempting to social distance, I didn’t notice it to be any less busy than any other time I’ve flown which did surprise me a little bit. Luckily, we flew on Southwest and they aren’t selling the middle seats right now so Connor and I had a whole row to ourselves on the way there and back. Our flights were the COVID-19 version of “full” (~60% capacity/93 people) though so people are definitely starting to travel again.

Once we landed, we picked up our rental car. Tip: If you’re under 25 years old (which Connor and I are) Hertz isn’t charging the young driver fee right now and it saved us a ton of money! Something else to look out for if you’re traveling during the pandemic is the rental car shuttle lines. At Phoenix Sky Harbor, there were literally about 300 people in line for the shuttle – I’d never seen it like that before. They can only let 10 people on each shuttle bus at a time so it got really backed up but they were super efficient with sending buses every couple minutes.

Once we got our rental car, we headed to get a late lunch. We went to the Hayden location of Butters Pancakes & Cafe (click here) in Scottsdale and it seriously was the best brunch we’ve ever had. I got the Belgian waffle with fresh banana on the top, Connor got the garden skillet, and we split a toasted plain bagel with cream cheese. I will admit that we were starving after the travel day we’d had but it was DELICIOUS. If you go, you have to get the orange juice. It tastes like you’re drinking right from a fresh orange and I wish I could have it everyday!

Before we made our way to Sedona, we made a few quick stops since we knew we weren’t going to get there until much later in the evening anyway. Our first stop was Papago Park. Papago Park is close to the airport and is a nice little park area where you can do a super easy and short hike and see some cacti. Next, we stopped at the Royal Palms Resort & Spa because I always see it all over Instagram and I wanted to see for myself! We only walked around for a few minutes but it’s so beautiful – I’d love to stay there someday. And pretty much every inch of it is an amazing photo opportunity! The last thing we did before we got to Sedona is stop at Montezuma Castle National Monument which is the perfect stop if you’re doing a Phoenix to Sedona road trip.

Once we made it to Sedona, we met up with the rest of my family at our Airbnb. We had a stunning view of the red rocks and the house was perfect! It was only about 10 minutes away from L’auberge de Sedona (click here), where the wedding was on Sunday afternoon. The venue was BEAUTIFUL and the wedding was such a success! It got me even more excited for our wedding next weekend(!!!).

On Monday morning, we left for the airport around 4am and flew home. Overall, it was a wonderful 48 hours in Arizona although I wish we could’ve stayed longer! My next post will be about all the last minute things I’m doing this week to prepare for the wedding. I’m so excited… talk to you then!