Phoenix, Arizona: Friends All Around the World

It seems I’ve gotten to the point in traveling now where I can be almost totally in the moment, doing things for the sake of enjoying them rather than just to share the experiences online. Whereas 3 years ago when I first started this blog I was writing each night about the day’s excursions in Paris, I now seem to spend my days running about so much that by the time I get back to my resting place, I can barely keep my eyes open!

Such was definitely the case in Arizona. Jess was in town for a few days for work and offered up her hotel room to me, knowing my love of exploring new places. Obviously, I was not one to pass up either a free hotel room or spending time with my best friend, so I immediately booked a flight.

Per usual, my only real plan was to take lots of photos, so the day before I left I posted in GLT that I’d be in the area, and though I didn’t have any expectations of interest, wound up scheduling a whopping five shoots in the 2.5 days I’d be there! Between those, shooting a few rolls of film disguised as location scouting for future photoshoots, and hanging out with Jess, it was an amazingly jam-packed few days.

Day 1

The best part about flying west is having no trouble rising early. I had a light day ahead with only one photoshoot in the evening, but wanted to make use of every bit of time available to me. Sitting in the airport the day previous I’d made myself a handy spreadsheet denoting the locations I wanted to scout and when best to see them according to where I’d be for each photoshoot (and since I hadn’t nailed down locations for all the GLT shoots yet, planned to explore the most interesting locations first with the potential to photograph them later that week.) Being a mountain girl, I wanted to start by capturing the most “deserty” location possible and since I didn’t have a car to get out to the actual desert, that meant Papago Park. Though the bus system there was quite handy, I opted to walk the hour or so there from the hotel so I could start to get the feel of the city, shooting film along the way.

I was immediately struck by how blue the sky was. Not a cloud to be seen, overhead all I could see was an endless expanse of almost a light royal blue - though the film certainly gives it a more robin’s egg look.

I strolled through the park listening to a new album, my second of the trip already. This is one of my favorite travel traditions, listening to new music each time I visit a new place so that every subsequent time I hear the songs my mind immediately goes to whatever faraway place I was visiting at the time. There’s got to be something about the science of memory in that, because now each time I hear anything off Carnavas by Silversun Pickups, I’m immediately right back in the warm, earthen park with the sun shining down upon me and the breeze lightly caressing my bare arms.

After several hours of walking, I didn’t relish the thought of traversing on foot into downtown Phoenix. So I didn’t. Public transit really is underrated, it’s one of my favorite ways to get to know the heart of a place, through the residents going about their everyday lives.

Most cities with even relatively large buildings have a lovely way of becoming lightboxes because of all of the reflected light, but Phoenix was something else. Perhaps because of the angle of the sun, or its directness, or the building materials themselves, but I kept giddily clicking away capturing photos of people bathed the natural spotlights that the city provided.

I stopped into a well-regarded Mexican food place for lunch (I now don’t actually remember the name) and wolfed down a burrito and daiquiri before I realized I’d managed to sun burn in January. This called for a very brief nap before my evening’s shoot.

I had a bit of a difficult time getting back out of bed, but boy was it worth it! Per usual, since each lady’s photoshoot will get its own blog post I won’t get into much details here, but as soon as I saw the gorgeous Christina sitting against the equally incredible graffitied backdrop of the Grateful House, I knew the evening would be magical.

As Jess and I were trying to link up whenever she got off work, I decided to wait for dinner and instead grabbed some Thai tea flavored ice cream from a street cart. Then, as I hadn’t yet heard from her I grabbed a second dessert of loaded ice cream sandwich, before I even had dinner. I walked 10 miles that day so I had exactly zero shame.

Jess wasn’t able to get away from work till later, so like the weary traveler I was I ordered takeaway from my hotel bed, set a reminder for when it would be ready so I could doze, woke up just in time to pick up my fresh-from-the-oven pita and went back to eat in bed. I’ve always had this hangup that whenever I travel every single meal must be authentic local food, but I suppose there are occasions where even I don’t stick to my own rules.

Day 2

I spent the majority of my second day in Arizona hanging out with amazing women. That’s really my biggest takeaway from this trip - just how many incredible women there are out there and how lucky I am to be building my own community of them all across the country. Particularly as all of these women are themselves traveling around the world, creating our own global tribe.

I first met Jessica, exploring the breathtaking Desert Botanical Gardens with her as we shyly - and then not so shyly - got to know each other. After the we’d completed the majority of our photoshoot, her husband picked us up and I had the pleasure of joining her (them) on her first ever hike in Arizona. I’m especially excited to share her blog post because of her inspiring story!

I am always blown away by the niceness of people. Truly, everywhere I’ve been (except perhaps that one fancy - read: snooty - restaurant in Paris) I’ve been taken in with wonderful hospitality. Jessica and her husband offered to drive my to my next meeting, meaning rather than having to figure out the bus route I got to enjoy a coffee and through-the-window street photography at the cafe because of the time saved.

Then, Holly, my next GLTer, and I strolled through the Japanese Friendship Gardens while we chatted about work and adventuring. She, in turn, suggested a few close lunch places that all sounded fantastic, then threw up her hands and said she didn’t know why she was trying to give me directions when she could easily just drive me wherever I wanted to go.

Since I had a few hours to kill and a food baby from my delicious empanada, I decided to go back to the Desert Botanical Gardens so I could shoot some film there too, and get another walk in. My film from this trip will also get a blog post of its own so what I’ve included here isn’t even the half of it, but let me just tell you that Portra film was made for the desert!

My last shoot of the day was at Tempe Town Lake, not far from my hotel. I checked Google Maps to see the best route, finding that I’d need to walk a fair ways to catch the next bus, and set off. I must have walked almost a mile to the stop, but was still 15 minutes early. I was standing right beside the bus sign with my toes practically hanging over the curb I was so close to the street, but somehow that wasn’t enough of a signal for the bus driver to stop for me. So after my bus flew right past me, I ended up having to walk another 40 minutes to the lake. It may have worked out for the next though because the outskirts of Scottsdale at sunset made for a great place to try out my expired black and white film.

We had very little time to shoot, but Lindsey and I spent another almost hour simply sitting on the steps overlooking the lake, sipping wine and talking about our travels as we watched an almost unreal sunset. This lady had some epic stories and is leaving next month for a yearlong remote work program traveling to 12 cities around the world! Despite this, she was incredibly nice and down to earth, driving me back to the hotel and making that 3 for 3 on the day getting rides from strangers quickly turned friends.

That night, Jess and I took the town by storm starting with dinner at a Somalian place that my Somali Uber driver had suggested. On the way, I found out that our second driver, also from Somalia, was actually in Chicago at the same time I was the month previous - small world. I didn’t know how to pronounce anything I ordered, but I always take that as a sign that the food will be delicious, and I was definitely right! I had roasted goat with rice and veggies, and learned that banana with rice is not only a staple of Somali cuisine, but it’s surprisingly tasty. We crammed months’ worth of stories and news into a few hours of drinks and snacks, but even if I hadn’t done anything else on the trip, flying across the country for just that evening would have been worth it.

Day 3

Once again trying to take advantage of every moment, I got up the next morning while it was still dark and immediately hit the pavement. The day before I’d seen what I thought was just a large hill but turned out to be a well-known butte paved for walking. I’d seen an incredible sunset already, so I was determined to catch the opposite on my last morning there. Not only did I watch a cotton candy sky awaken the sleepy city, but I got to watch someone’s birthday celebration too as all of this girl’s friends had hiked up at sunrise to throw rose petals into the wind for felicities.

After another quick nap, Mikaela and her little one picked up me from the hotel and took me out to downtown Scottsdale for our photoshoot. He was nothing but a ball of energy, so I spent the next hour laughingly capturing candids. All too soon, it was time to go and Mikaela offered to drop me off at the airport, once again making my life so much easier. I was already cutting into the prescribed two hour window, but when she suggested we also stop by In-N-Out burger on the way, her treat, I couldn’t refuse. I only just realized that that was already the third time this year that I chose potentially being late for my flight in favor of food!

For once, my top priority hadn’t been to sightsee, but to spend time with people and in that I definitely succeeded. I really only got a small taste of Arizona, but from the little I did and saw I already know I’ll have to go back.