21 In Moab

I'm really just going to zoom through these first few days because I know most of you are here to read about my epic weekend in Moab for my 21st birthday. So I'll make the first days quick.

Monday November 14

Regular Monday. I worked, went to institute, went to class, went to FHE and saw Travis and Derrick do the most amazing... and a little disturbing... dance filled with snake dances and belly rolls.

Tuesday November 15

Tuesday got switched up a little bit and my RPA class ended up combining with Chastity and Courtney's ethics class so I got to go to class with them. Davis Cay Johnston was the guest speaker in the class, and he is equal parts inspiring and terrifying. He has so many cool stories stored in his brain, and he knows all sorts of secrets about Donald Trump and as a result is close to the top of Trump's do not like list haha. 

Worked for the remainder of Tuesday. There was a basketball game this night, so that meant another late night at the Wildcat newsroom, I'm actually starting to get used to them now .... and maybe even like them? nah.

Wednesday November 16

The most exciting thing that happened on Wednesday was that the homie Tom took my graduation photos! I dragged Derrick along with me to be my assistant/carry all my crap because all my roommates were working or didn't want to come. I literally cannot stand being in front of the camera. I think it's a photographers curse honestly, because I don't think it's possible for me to be more awkward than I am in front of a camera. Luckily Tom is a great photographer and actually got some shots of me where I look pretty normal, here are a few of my favorites:

I never realized how much of a squinter I am... it's insane actually.

Then Derrick and I joined Kara on a fun adventure to Smashburger, but we took a little detour to Discount Tire because Kara's tire wasn't having a good day.... then we were stranded at Discount Tire while her tire was being fixed, but Carly being the angel that she is came and picked us up and dropped us off at Derrick's car so we could get some Smash. Best decision we made was to get three different kinds of fries and all share them.

In the evening I had my final "normal" eboard of the semester... and of my entire Wildcat life... CRAZY. I think we still have one more but it's going to be involving evaluating the applicants for the new EIC. 

Thursday November 17

On Thursday I had work as usual, but I got to hang out with Nathan and check out the Photography museum on campus. There were about 100 photos in the exhibit and he went up to every single one saying "Woow. So beautiful. I love it" and if you know Nathan and his cute voice, you can only imagine how much joy filled my soul when he said it every single time hahaha.

After work I went to the Courts to write a story for my RPA class... it was kind of a mess of  a day because the court case I wanted to cover was not letting me into the courtroom and I couldn't figure out why, so I ended up switching to a different case at the very last second and caught it just in time for the lawyer's closing arguments. 

After the courts, I came home, finalized some packing, then I picked up Jenny from the Institute, then Kara from her house and then Steph from the Toyota dealership and then we were on our way to Mesa to start my birthday weekend adventure.

I have the most amazing parents who made dinner for me, my Tucson friends joining me on my trip to Moab, Zach, Sadie, Parker and Trevor as a little birthday celebration. My mom made my favorite Chicken Enchiladas, we all talked about how much we love me and some sarcastic things they like about me as well, we opened presents and then of course had an epic dance party with Avery. Not to brag but I did win one of the dancing competitions as well as one of the audience watching competitions, and it wasn't just because of my birthday hahaha.

Once the dance party started to wind down, I situated all the people staying the night at my house (Abby, Kara, Brittany. Andrew, Derrick, Steph, Jenny, plus my siblings who also live at the house) and then I made sure I got to sleep at a generally decent time, so I could be wide awake bright and early the next morning.

Friday November 18

My 21st birthday... how the crap am I 21.

I've had a few people ask me what this trip was all about, so I thought I'd explain it really fast. You may recall all the little road trips I went on in 2015 to visit all the cities in Arizona. Well since then I have become addicted to road trips, and I think that birthday adventures with lots of friends is way more exciting than a birthday party. Last year I went on a trip to the Northern AZ cities, and this year I went to Moab to visit Canyonlands and Arches National Parks.

Everyone woke up bright and early, got ready and got all our stuff packed into the car, made a pit stop at a gas station and at Wal Mart and then we were on the road to Moab by 6 am.

We were split up into two cars, and coincidentally we got split up by age.

The Big Kids: me, Zach, Steph, Rory, Andrew and Abby

The Little Kids: Derrick, Brittany, McKenzie, Jenny and Kara.

We stuck together pretty well on the way up to Moab. We took some pit stops in Flagstaff, Tuba City (the big kids were approached by a nice homeless and some of us thought we were going to die from the encounter), Kayenta, the Utah border and finally we made it to Moab!

You can see Rory in the background getting a phone call about a job interview!!

When we got into Moab we stopped at the information center, and then made our way to our campsite for night one. Andrew dropped the big kids off so he could go work on his capstone project, and then the rest of the people set up the campsite! Brittany was the real MVP of the trip and supplied the 15 person tent for all of us to sleep in AND it was surprisingly very easy to set up. Unfortunately most of the big kids stuff was in the car that Andrew took, so we set up as much as we could before we went back into town and met back with Andrew for dinner.

Andrew is the Moab expert of the group and asked me earlier what I would want for my birthday dinner, I of course said pizza, and he knew of a great place called Paradox Pizza where everyone gets to pay by the slice. It was NY style and absolutely delicious. After dinner and hanging out for awhile we made our way back to the campsite and started setting up the remainder of our stuff. 

Abby was the boy scout of the group and got a successful fire started for us, and thank goodness because it was FREEEEEEEEZING. Everyone was bundled up in SO many layers of clothing, but we all survived together.

Friends that suffer through the cold together stay together

Also look at Jenny's face... if there's one person who should have died from being so cold it would have been Jenny

After hanging around the campfire a little bit I figured it would be smart to go to sleep relatively early for all the adventuring we would be doing on Saturday.

Saturday November 19

I set my alarm for 6 am... but it was so cold that my phone died on me, so we ended up waking up around 7 but we really didn't even get up until at least 8. Everyone was bundled up and cuddling together and no one wanted to leave the heat of the tent and enter the cold world. Eventually we sucked it up and got up, cleaned up all our stuff, took down the tent (also surprisingly easy), and cleared the campsite.

Our first adventure of the day was in Canyonlands National Park which was just a short drive from our campsite.

We started off our adventure coming in hot into the Canyonlands (as the man at the Kiosk said) and did the very short Upheavel Dome hike with a SPECTACULAR VIEW. And I'm all about hikes that leave me with a good view in the end, especially when they're easy hikes.

Because we had different levels of hikers in the group, we planned to only do that hike in Canyonlands and just stop at some of the awesome viewpoints for the rest of our time at the Canyonlands.

After spending a couple hours in the Canyonlands we made our way back to Moab to eat some lunch at the Moab Diner. 10/10 would recommend their chicken fingers hahah. 

After lunch we stopped by a Maverik to get some caffeine into the caffeine addicted people of the group (that is me included of course), and Steph discovered a very delicious Monster that may have converted her to energy drinks.

Then we made our way to Arches National Park. We were running a bit behind schedule so we decided it would be best to only visit the Double Arches and Delicate Arch. The entire posse went to the Double Arches because it wasn't even a hike to get to it. I think the Arches is probably my new favorite national park because it's just so cool staring at the arches and thinking "how the crap did that even happen," it was just all so beautiful.

Then it was time to head over to Delicate Arch. The hike to this magnificent arch is no walk in the park, so we ended up splitting up. Abby, Andrew, Zach, Derrick (even with a not so good knee), Kara and myself went and hiked Delicate Arch, while the rest of the group went and checked into our AirBnB and started to settle in.

Andrew told me about this hike beforehand and how difficult it would be, so I was a little bit worried I was going to die. But being the good friend that Andy is, he made it sound harder than it actually was. It's definitely not easy, but not nearly as difficult as most people would say, just make sure to take breaks so you don't lose your breath. 

And the difficulty of the hike is all worth it when you finally get to the arch. Seriously the most magnificent piece of nature in the world, and hands down my favorite part of the entire trip. I took pretty much a thousand photos of the arch because it was so magnificent from every angle, and we got there at the PERFECT time with the sun just about to set over the mountains, we seriously could not have planned it better. SO AMAZING.

Who did it better?

The dream team hiking squad, not one complainer in the group

Andrew hiked down to this tiny little hole in the dome right next to the arch, he's a brave adventurous soul

It was so relaxing and fun being up there with my friends and saying the weirdest crap in the "Swedish" accents that became a thing for this trip. 10/10 would recommend hiking up here, there will be no regrets.

Once we hiked back down, we got back into Moab and had yet another dinner at Paradox Pizza with the rest of clan, and then went and bought some souvenirs at a Moab Trading Post. Some people were a little crazy and even got some ice cream in the freezing weather.

Afterwards we went to the AirBnB, got everyone settled in and I had to do some Wildcat work while everyone else played this seemingly hilarious game that I missed out on... dang responsibilities, I will get to play it another day I'm sure.

Abby and I lucked out and got the king size bed in the AirBnB with a TV in the room so we (along with Zach on the cot at the foot of our bed) watched the Lizzie McGuire until we fell asleep/finished my work.

Sunday November 20

We packed up and left the AirBnB around 9 am and got some breakfast at this cute little ma and pa shop in town, and then started on our journey back home. 

In an effort to keep with the Little Kids car in front of me.... and in an effort to try and moon them for passing us earlier... we got pulled over in Monticello and the little kids got off. I was definitely going way too fast and deserved a ticket but was a little bit salty that they didn't get pulled over for going at least 5 mph over what we were... but then again it was a good thing I got pulled over instead because it saved that car $450 compared to my $270. This was my first time getting pulled over, let alone getting a ticket... not the best addition to my birthday road trip, but it only makes the trip all the more memorable. And my nice friends are splitting it with me too, so team work makes the dream work.

The rest of the drive home was relatively relaxing, besides the house that was lit on fire and the car the got flipped over into the ditch. 

The little kids beat us home by about 45 minutes, but we weren't about that speeding life after the ticket. The good news is that we all made it home safely and in one piece. 

It was such a relief to make it home to Mesa... until I realized I had another leg to go to Tucson. But we did take a break at my house for a little bit and watched the AMAZING video that Abby made of the trip. Usually I'm the one that ends up making a video and taking all the pics on a trip so I don't end up in being pretty much anything, but Abby and I had a good system of her taking video and me taking the pictures so there would be at least some sort of proof that we were both there. Abby did this all on her phone... she has the world's steadiest hand. MAJOR kudos to her... ANNNND she edited it all before we even got home Slay Queen Abby.

Overall it was probably my favorite trip to date. Great people, great views, great memories and all around great birthday! Couldn't ask for anything more... besides maybe not getting a ticket.