An opportunity came up for me to travel to Gilbert, Arizona, and of course, my first thought was: What else can we do while we’re there?

There was just one little problem.

I had to convince hubby to come with me.

After what felt like pulling teeth, Mike finally agreed.

I’m the type of person who wants to do as much as possible whenever I travel. If we’re already going somewhere, why sit around when there are places nearby we’ve never seen?

So what started as a trip to Gilbert quickly turned into an Arizona adventure.

First Stop: Montezuma Castle

One of our first stops was Montezuma Castle National Monument.

Mike enjoys visiting historic places and learning about the people who lived there before us, so this was definitely somewhere we wanted to see.

Built into a towering limestone cliff, Montezuma Castle is an incredible structure to see in person. Looking up at something built hundreds of years ago and imagining people actually living high above the ground is hard to describe.

It’s one of those places that makes you stop and wonder what everyday life must have been like.

And we were only getting started.

The Red Rocks of Sedona

Next, we headed to Sedona.

If you’ve never seen the red rocks in person, pictures really don’t prepare you for how beautiful the landscape is.

One of our stops was the Chapel of the Holy Cross, sitting high among Sedona’s red rocks.

I love landscapes, but I also love architecture, so this was the perfect combination for me. The chapel itself is beautiful, but seeing it surrounded by that landscape made it even more impressive.

Of course, at some point we had to eat.

We stopped at a restaurant while we were exploring Sedona, and I’ll be adding more about that meal once I go through our photos from the trip.

[Add Sedona restaurant + link to food review]

Then it was time to keep exploring.

We Found a Ghost Town

Somewhere along our adventure, we found ourselves in Jerome.

And this was right up my alley.

We walked around the old mining town and explored areas set up to show what buildings and homes looked like during its mining days.

Then we found the cars.

Lots and lots of old cars.

There were vintage cars, old buses and vehicles that had clearly been sitting around for a very long time.

And naturally, I wanted some of them.

I have a pretty active imagination, so while looking around at all those old vehicles, I kept thinking about the movie Cars. Some of them looked like they could have rolled right out of the cartoon and started talking.

We even saw goats wandering around.

Old buildings, abandoned cars, buses and goats.

Jerome definitely wasn’t boring.

We Couldn't Go to Arizona Without Seeing the Grand Canyon

Then came the big one.

The Grand Canyon.

I’d seen pictures. Everyone has seen pictures.

Seeing it in person was completely different.

It was surreal standing there looking out at something so enormous. It’s difficult to understand the scale of the Grand Canyon until you’re actually standing at the edge of it.

Unfortunately, Mother Nature apparently decided we’d seen enough.

We had only been there for about an hour when it started to hail.

And not cute little pieces of hail, either.

Big hail.

Mike and I took that as our sign.

It was time to book it out of there and start heading home.

We Packed a Lot Into One Trip

Looking back, I’m glad I convinced Mike to come along.

What started as an opportunity to travel to Gilbert turned into so much more. We saw ancient cliff dwellings, drove through Sedona’s red rocks, visited a chapel surrounded by an incredible landscape, wandered around an old mining town, admired vintage cars I couldn’t take home, stood at the Grand Canyon and then got chased away by hail.

That’s exactly why I like packing as much as possible into our trips.

You never know what you’re going to find along the way.

And apparently, you never know when the sky is going to start throwing ice at you either.

Jen

Jen is one half of Couples Dining Out. She loves pasta, a great salad, and believes dessert should be eaten first because why risk running out of room? She loves trying new places with Mike, but if something looks good on her plate, order your own. She’s not sharing.