A few highlights from a long weekend! This is part 1 of 3 or 4 parts. We’ll see how long these get!

Wednesday

• My new Tooli-Art pens arriving just in time for my trip! Tooli-Art came out with a new jewel tone set and I was really hoping they’d arrive in time to take them to Tucson.
• Getting a new mani/pedi with Lorena.
• Picking up my pottery masterpiece.
• Being able to get my Coumadin before I ran out in a week and a half.

Thursday 

• Steven dropping me off at the airport.
• Texting with Dad about RAGBRAI this year. I asked if he wanted to do the Ames (where I went to college) to Des Moines (state capital, where RAGBRAI originated). Of course, he said yes!
• Breezing though security. I always think they will pull my bags because of all the rocks, but they don’t.
• Arriving in Tucson!
• Watching Ticket to Paradise on the plane. It wasn’t as bad as it looked! Ha!
• Reuniting with Val and getting to meet her husband Steve. He flew with her then got a rental car and drove to a city an hour away to go skydiving for the weekend.
• A delicious lunch at Del Cielo Tamal. They have an extensive vegan menu so it was hard to pick one thing! So Val and I split two dishes (she isn’t vegan but was happy to split) – the Tacos Dorados and all three of the tamales. There was a “special” tamale that was strawberry flavored! So so good.
• Going to El Jefe Cat Lounge. It was three floors of cat goodness! And the top level had a kitten room with 12 kittens in it! It was so adorable – six of them were sleeping in a huge pile. And one kept following the mom around, batting at her tail. It was adorable. We hid some rocks there too. (Here is a reel about it!)
• Stopping at the running store and chatting with the people who worked there. The restaurant, cat lounge, and running store were all right next to each other! It was the perfect afternoon for me and Val. When we went in I asked for recommendations for trails and we had a long conversation with a guy named Phillip who works there (I am so glad we talked to him – I did not realize the national park was split in two locations). It turns out he is from Gurnee, IL (where Steven’s business is) and has lived in all the cities the three of us are visiting from – Chicago, Denver, and LA! It was fun to chat with him, and shop! I got a tank top to wear this summer and a hat – I had forgotten to pack a visor.
• Picking up Tiff at the airport.
• Getting to our Airbnb and setting up. It’s a cute older house south of the downtown area. Random, but I am glad we rented a car – the layout of the city is much different than how I had it in my head.

• Giving each other little gifts. Ha! We each had gifts for each other! Tiff gave me some custom painted rocks, a pot she and her husband made (!!!), a cat bag, and a stamp that has Khali’s face on it!!! Val gave me some Goodrs I forgot she had gotten us both (!!!) a felt plant, and a puzzle! (I had gotten them Goodrs, custom bracelets, custom rocks, and baskets with their names on them).
• Getting all of our art supplies out and starting to sketch.
• Going to the Ensenada Street Food truck. More Mexican food! That was kind of a mistake – we meant to drive to a different street truck but we had just discussed at lunch how we can eat Mexican meal after meal so it was all good. The woman working the counter was HILARIOUS and really made our ordering process fun. She did give us bad intel though, ha – she said we could take our food to her favorite brewery, Barrio Brewery, but you definitely couldn’t. Oops! We went there and asked a staff member we saw outside and he was a bit rude and telling us no. So we ate at the Airbnb. Surprisingly, my favorite taco was the ceviche inspired one where the fish was replaced with fried cauliflower. I got four tacos to try and was proud of myself for only eating the two I really liked and trying the other two and not finishing them.
• Painting after dinner! This is a painting trip after all! I got two rocks painted and Val did too, and Tiff painted… like six or seven! She is fast!

Lowlights

• Short flight delays – first we didn’t have a plane, then we didn’t have a crew, then we had to sit on the runway for a while because there was a loose coyote (??? I know, right?). None of these a big deal and we were only delayed an hour but I was anxious to get to Tucson!
• The goofy Hertz pickup and car they gave me. I prefer to book Hertz because you get to pick your car but that is not how they do it in Tucson. And that’s okay. But they gave me keys and told me to go to spot I19 and that spot had a Nissan and I had GMC keys and it took me a bit to figure out my car (actually an SUV, which is nice, since I booked a sedan) was in I16. Ha. The GMC is bizarre – the shifter is toggles in the center console and every time it thinks I am too close to another car it vibrates my seat! And it keeps telling me not to leave a person in the backseat. Ha. And the last weird thing – you just drive away with your rental car after you get it – I didn’t go through a gate or talk to anyone.
• The cat lounge being a bit smelly and some of the cats having pretty crusty eyes. I wonder if that is because of the different climate.