Paris and I arrived back in the U.S. on Thursday morning after an 8 hour (or so, with a time zone difference) flight from Lima. I have to tell you, after traveling by bus so much, it felt like I was in HEAVEN to be on an actual airplane!
We flew into Los Angeles and arranged to have a lay-over there for the day since I've never been to LA before. We met a guy, Silvestre, in Peru actually during one of our traveling escapades in Ica and Nasca (you remember this, right?) who lives in LA. He got back to the US before us, so we figured we'd hang out with him (and I wanted to see another one of my friends there, but it turned out she wasn't in town the day we flew in) for the day in LA. It was so nice! We got into the airport around 8:30am and it took us about an hour to go through immigrations/customs & what-not, then we met up with him around 9:30am and he took us around LA and Hollywood until 4:30pm when we had to be back at the airport. We went to a beautiful art museum with gorgeous gardens and fountains, then we ate at a Persian restaurant (that's right Fakhria!! ;) and then we went to Hollywood Blvd. and walked down the strip to see all the hollywood stars, etc. It was a great afternoon :) The time just FLEW on by though; of course, it takes longer than one day to see all of Los Angeles!
We fly out of LA around 6pm and got to Phoenix, Arizona by 7:45pm-ish. We were so lucky because Taylor booked us a hotel in Phoenix so we didn't have to hunt around for one. We just hopped on the hotel shuttle from the airport right to the hotel and were AMAZED when we opened the door to our room and found out we had a room with 2 QUEEN BEDS, a couch, a refrigerator, microwave...etc. Whoa baby! Since Taylor is a hotel manager we get special discounts at hotels and paid next to nothing for an unbelievable room! I took a bath for at least an hour, then snuggled all in my super soft sheets with my cozy pillows and felt like the happiest person on earth :) Ahhhh....
Then Taylor and my mom met us here in Phoenix yesterday and the 4 of us have been just relaxing and spending time together for the past 2 days here. Yesterday we went and ate at a mexican restaurant (yay! Mexican food!!!) and today was my mom's graduation (she now has her masters degree from The Grand Canyon University!) so we spent the afternoon at the ceremony in downtown Phoenix. My favorite part of the ceremony (other than cheering for my mom, of course) was listening to the national anthem played on the trumpet (AMAZING!!!) and there was a Scottish group in kilts playing the bag pipes also that was very snazzy ;) The ceremony was held in a baseball stadium in downtown, so with the mix of the baseball stadium & national anthem, I really felt like I was back in the United States. It's been very strange hearing everyone talk in English since we got back. Paris and I keep on responding to people in Spanish and they look at us strangely and then we realize, 'oh yeah.. English! English!' So I feel like I'm constantly translating everything still at this point. My mom and Taylor keep wanting Paris and I to talk in Spanish all the time, but my brain feels like mush! I'm tired...
Tomorrow we will check out of our luxury room here in Phoenix, lol, and head to Sedona which is supposed to be an extremely scenic area on the way to the Grand Canyon. I believe we are planning to stay there for one day and then we'll head to the Grand Canyon on Monday.
From now until Friday we are planning to make a loop to the Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam, Las Vegas, and then back to Phoenix. As always... I will keep you posted!
