A breath of Fresh Air...

Hello to everyone... Do hope this message finds you all doing well. Abby and I are both back at work. I guess we can't be to disappointed because we have only worked 1 day since July 29th! Much to our dismay we both became sick the night of our last blog. I had a pretty nasty sore throat with a head cold and Abby was feeling more malaise with an on again off again sore throat. We definitely attribute our sickness to the lack of sleep over the past couple of weeks. I know I know you are probably saying, well dang they have been on vacation for the past month. This my good friend is true, but unfortunately we have been working night shifts for the past 3 months, so trying to adjust to day shift and to Eastern Standard time kicked our butts! If you have never tried to orient, un-orient, then reorient to night shifts before, you just don't understand. Okay, enough of the pity party, to the good stuff. After a weekend of being sick, Monday morning rolled around.



Around 11am on a beautiful HOT Monday morning here in Phoenix AZ, Abby and I were sitting on the couch watching the Olympics and discussing how much we hate the desert, I brought up the fabulous idea to head north. "Let's go to the Grand Canyon today." So we did. We left Phoenix around 2pm and made it up to Flagstaff, AZ around 4pm. Much to our enjoyment, Flagstaff was beautiful. The first thing we noticed was that it was in the low 80's. There was a nice cool breeze and there were trees all around us. (We honestly watched the thermometer in the car the entire way up, enjoying seeing the temp drop and drop and drop) We were saying that Flagstaff reminded us a lot of Boone, NC. A nice little college town surrouned by green mountains. NAU, Northern Arizona University, sits in downtown Flagstaff. We went into an Embassy Suites to just pick up brochures on where to possibly stay (since our trip up was being made without hotel reservations), and the first question I asked was "where do the Arizona Cardinals practice." The lady quickly responded with "right next to the dome on the campus of NAU." "Do you have a practice schedule?" "Why yes I do." she replied. I looked with great excitement... Why I'll be, they were actually practicing right at that moment. Abby and I rushed over to the practice field and watched about 30 minutes of practice. There wasn't a whole lot going on, but I was able to spot many of the players. Matt Leinert, Anquan Boldin, Edgerrin James, and Kurt Warner were a few of the players spotted. I have pictures, so will try and get them up ASAP. The practice was very chill. They only had on shoulder pads, helmets and shorts. I guess when you get to that stage, there isn't much to do in the way of learning how to tackle, etc... they were basically running through plays. #11 Larry Fitzgerald made an amazing catch down the sideline to beat the DB covering him. It was then that I was able to witness my first ever NFL trash talk session. Larry definitely let that DB know that he was beat. Good times! Dark clouds were rolling over head so they cut practice short. I said "what's up man," to Anquan Boldin #81, and he said "what's up" back! I also said hello to Kurt Warner. I tried to get Abby to take a picture with Matt Leinart, but she chickened out. All this after saying to me "you know Matt Leinart is going to want to marry me when he sees me right?" What a chicken. I have to admit, I'm not sure what I enjoyed most. Was it watching the quarterbacks compete in their end of practice passing challenge, or the cool breeze coming in from the storm, the beautiful plush scenery, or taking my flip flops off and feeling the cool GREEN GRASS between my toes? Tough to choose.





After watching all the players exit the field, we headed back to the Embassy Suites to get a room. After getting all settled in we headed to the lobby for a managers cocktail session. We enjoyed some free adult beverages and some popcorn while watching the Giants romp the Browns. We were referred to this one bar/restaurant for food and to watch the Olympics. After dinner we headed home and were in bed by 11pm. The next day I quickly woke from the sounds of a nearby Train motoring down the track. I think it was around 6am when this train decided to lay on it's whistle like if they were trying to scare Hancock off it's tracks! I mean seriously, 6am?!?!?! Ridiculously loud! We got out of bed around 8am and went for the delicious breakfast offered by Embassy. A full breakfast, made to order omelets and all, the USA today outside our door, and the night before cocktail hour made Embassy Suites a must stay. Then it was off to the Grand Canyon...





We arrived at the Grand Canyon around 11am. We ran into the Village for some lunch and to get some postcards, then it was off to the trails. We stopped at many overlooks to catch a glimpse at one of the seven natural wonders of the world. It was incredible. I have been there once before but back when I was 10, but I really didn't remember much. I will not try to describe in words what we saw, you will just have to wait for the pictures to see for yourself. We headed down the road to this place called Grandview Point to hike one of their "steep" trails. 40 minutes down we looked back and realized that we better turn around because it was practically straight up! We probably hiked about a mile down into the canyon before heading back up. Honestly, 1 mile down wasn't getting us anywhere near the bottom of the canyon. There were signs for other trails warning people that a hike to the river and back in 1 day is strongly NOT recommended. There was a poster hanging by the entrance of this trail talking about a marathon runner getting stuck on the trail because of shear exhaustion and lack of supplies. Not the kind of stuff you want to read before venturing down into the Grand Canyon. Abby and I were stacked with water and Fiber One bars, but honestly we knew our limits and only went down a short way. We were able to take many amazing photos all of which we will try to post (once again our Internet is horrible where we are staying). To our surprise it only took about 35 minutes to hike up. We then headed back to Flagstaff to eat dinner and to check out more of their downtown area. The drive to Flagstaff from Phoenix was about 1:45. The drive to the Grand Canyon from Flagstaff was about 1:30, so it really wasn't a bad day and a half trip. We got back to Phoenix around 9pm Tuesday night. To be honest, we were contemplating staying in Flagstaff Tuesday night and then heading to Sedona on Wednesday morning, all because we really didn't want to head back to the desert!



This trip was a great refresher for us. We both are ready to get out of this hospital and the area. A new scene is definitely needed. We both discussed how this trip has reenergized our desire to be travel nurses because of great opportunities like this one. A much needed trip to say the least.