Everything Except The Grand Canyon

As our trip began to wind down, my aunt and I traveled from Sedona to our final destination: The Grand Canyon. I was expecting it to be nothing; I had seen so many photos, how exciting could it be?

Answer: magnificent. I won't even try to deny the fact that my mouth was gaping open wide for a couple minutes. The Grand Canyon is yet another wonder which people try to photograph yet continuously fail to capture the true essence of its being.

I tried too! 

The funny thing is that I enjoyed Grand Canyon National Park to the extreme, but it was for unusual reasons. It wasn't the canyon; it was the culture.

Even within the first few minutes at the initial overlook, I heard so many different languages I lost count. People come from literally everywhere on the planet to see the Grand Canyon, and that intercultural presence makes the park even more worth it. I talked to people from several different states, as well as people "touring" (as they call it) from Australia and England. The person who rang me up in the gift shop was from the Philippines, and the person refilling waters at dinner was from Peru. 

I always thought it would be awesome to work at an airport kiosk because each day would involve meeting so many different people with so many different stories going so many different places for so many different reasons. Turns out, many National Parks are similar in that way.

And the people were all friendly!! It had been a long time since I was in a place with such a large quantity of smiling, genuinely happy people.

I also loved the bus system. In Michigan, the closest bus stop is a 7 minute drive from my house, at which point it becomes useless to ride the bus; we're already almost to our destination. Perhaps that is why I found the bus system at the Grand Canyon so enthralling. It was free and stopped everywhere. there were buses that went from the hotels to the eating areas to the visitor centers, and other buses that hopped from one scenic overlook to another. It instilled a sense of freedom in me. We used our car a grand total of zero times between check-in and check-out. 

I am failing to communicate the thing I am trying to communicate. To sum it up, I will say that Grand Canyon National Park is amazing, and the amazingness spans far beyond the canyon walls. I would totally live there if I could.

Top 10 Worst Places to Feel Light-Headed (or Shaky, or to Have to Go to the Bathroom Very Badly)

This blog entry is a rip off, because I don't actually have a list of the top 10 worst places to feel light-headed, shaky, or to have the urge to use the bathroom. However, if such a list ever did exist, I have found a place that would most likely be on it. It's called the Cathedral Rock Trail in Sedona, which I braved with my aunt on Thursday (April 9th).

One of my aunts who was not on this trip but who was recently in Sedona called this particular hike "moderate." I call it "life-threatening." It was basically a climb up a series of short cliffs, followed by a ledge, then another short cliff. The views were gorgeous, but when I was climbing the mini cliffs, my mind was on everything except that.

I arrived at the top light-headed, shaky, and completely exhausted. I also had to use the restroom, but there's not exactly anywhere to hide on a trail of open rock. I befriended the "End of Trail" sign and held onto it for dear life (there was a cliff just beyond it).

I was desperately searching for a more gently sloping trail to take back down, but no such luck. I basically treated the entire thing as a giant slide on the way down, scooting everywhere on my butt (it was actually quite fun!)

I admit, I am making this sound a lot worse than it actually was. I must have a slight fear of heights, though I'm not willing to admit it, because every time I climb a rock wall I become extremely shaky and my palms sweat (which is basically the worst thing that can happen when climbing a rock wall). I thought this hike was terrifying, but there was a family that brought their young children up with them, and another guy who was jogging the trail. I cannot fathom either of those, but if people can jog a trail that I just described as a series of cliffs, it must not be as bad as I described.

It was definitely beautiful though! That is something I cannot deny.

P.S. Can you find me in the bottom photo? I became a daredevil for 20 seconds.

What Fits in a Square

After spending a few fun-filled days in Scottsdale, my aunt and I began our trek to Sedona. As we were driving out Wednesday, we stopped in Phoenix. My aunt needed to take care of some things at the post office, so while she did that I walked around the immediate area.

Right outside the post office was a park.. Er, maybe a city square would be a more accurate term. I decided to take a walk through it, a walk which lasted less than five minutes.

The abundance of diversity I saw in that five minutes is what is absolutely astounding to me. Under the trees were a couple of homeless men, dozing in the shade. A jolly bearded and shirtless man sat in the sun talking loudly on his cell phone. There were some tables on a large cemented area, and several ladies were enjoying a snack while chatting; others were engrossed in work on their computers. 

A bit further up there were several benches and a bus stop. I saw a family of Asian descent with their packs speaking to each other in some language I could not quite place. Several people of various ages sat on the benches in rugged clothes with ripped grocery bags filled with what I assume is everything they own. A nun sat on a bench waiting for the bus and conversing in Spanish with another person. An elderly gentlemen in a motor chair passed me on the sidewalk. Throughout the entire area I just described, there were college students walking with their backpacks and conversing in a joyful manner. 

In a walk lasting less than five minutes and covering an extremely short distance, I saw such a wide variety of people - different ages, languages, social classes, ethnicities, and stories. Yet they had something in common: they were in the same location, whatever their reasons for being there. There were no conflicts, and everyone seemed to be treating everyone else in a very friendly manner. 

This is the way the world should be; so often we let little differences come between us, but it doesn't have to be that way. It is possible for everyone to live in harmony despite the things that set us all apart. It only took a walk through a square in Phoenix to teach me this.

Insignificant in Saguaro

Sunday we had many fun adventures here in Arizona! We began the day with a bilingual sunrise Easter service on top of Sentinel Peak - it was gorgeous, both the views and the message! We then went to Old Tucson, the Senora Desert Museum, and Saguaro National Park West!

I have no words to describe Saguaro National Park. I spent an entire hike trying to come up with some; I couldn't. I took 200 photos in attempt to capture what I found unworthy of words; turns out it was unworthy of photos, too.

As we climbed the mountain associated with the Hugh Norris trail, we became more and more immersed in the cacti. The saguaros were everywhere, all around us, on every wrinkle of every mountain. We reached a peak; more saguaro covered mountains as far as we could see. Behind us: mountains silhouetted in the sunset, and more saguaros.

I felt so insignificant. I kept thinking, "Wow, God made all this. His world is so vast with so much beauty, yet he cares so much about me?? I am so unworthy. There's a song by Jason Gray that goes,

Tell me once again who I am to You,
Who I am to You.
Tell me lest I forget who I am to You,
That I belong to You.
To You."

I kept singing it in my head throughout the entire hike. It fit so perfectly! I was (and still am) completely awestruck! Ephesians 3:18 says:

"And may you have the power to understand, as all God's people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is."


Saguaro National Park gave me a true picture of something that is extremely wide, long, high, and deep; yet I know it doesn't even come close to the extent of the love God has for all of us. The love of Jesus is truly amazing!

Here is a photo from our hike. As I said, it doesn't come close to showing the true beauty of the national park, but it's still worth sharing.

Lost in Tucson

Hello again! Saturday my aunt and I flew into Tucson, Arizona! It is super nice to have a break from the cold and unpredictable Michigan winter (supposedly spring... I think not). Michigan State was in the Final Four, and my aunt being the MSU fan that she is desired to watch the game. My take on the situation: ARIZONA! Who cares about sports? And so, the decision was made that I would be dropped off on the University of Arizona campus for the couple of hours while my aunt watched the game. I was excited to have a few hours to aimlessly wander and explore!

What an adventure those few hours turned out to be! I started out walking around the student union and then out into the surrounding area of Tucson. We had just driven through an area with many cool attractions, so I was attempting to get back to where we had been driving. Apparently I'm not as good with directions as I thought, because I missed a street somewhere and ended up walking approximately 14 blocks out of my way in the hot Arizona sun.

I eventually arrived back on the University of Arizona campus hot, miserable, and completely exhausted. I decided I needed a plan. I went to the information booth, where "friendly brochure guy" as he became known gave me a campus map (his name is extremely sarcastic - he acted like I was the biggest pain in the world for asking him to hand me a map from the pile directly next to him). I was hot, so what combats heat? Ice cream or a smoothie! I plugged "Tucson ice cream shops" into Google Maps and found a gelato place that seemed not too far away, so off I went!

Places look a lot closer on Google Maps than they are in real life. Several miles later as I was walking through a very sketchy part of town, I decided that gelato wasn't worth risking my life and I should turn around. The crowds of college students were long gone, and the only people surrounding me were men smoking and drinking, and a Spanish song blared from a nearby store. I could only understand one word that the song kept repeating; it translates to "penis" (either that or it was a super interesting song about a comb...). This was not a good area, and though I had my pepper spray, I still felt very alone and unsafe. I walked past a Dairy Queen and settled for an Oreo Blizzard, then quickly walked back to campus.

You'd think that a person would smile back if I smiled at them. You'd think that if I was within two feet behind a person, he would make sure the door didn't slam in my face. You'd think that if I was on a footbridge and there were three people walking shoulder to shoulder coming towards me and taking up the entire width of the bridge, someone would move over to make room for me. But no... No to all of the above. I was genuinely trying to smile and look friendly; maybe I had a sour look on my face from being hot, but I don't think so! Everyone was being so unfriendly. One guy even stopped and said to me, "Yeah, just be excited!" and walked away laughing with his friend. Really??

I finally arrived back on campus, exhausted and ready for the MSU game to be over already. Then I saw it. Right next to campus was a Jamba Juice, my favorite smoothie place in the universe with a grand total of zero locations in Michigan. And I walked all that way through a sketchy area for a Dairy Queen.... Life sometimes.

Well, that was my Tucson adventure! I do love the architecture here and how the culture is truly a mix of Mexican and American. Diversity is cool!