Giving Thanks In Phoenix, Arizona

I am back in Massachusetts after spending my Thanksgiving holiday in Phoenix, Arizona! It was my first time there, and the first time I’ve ever spent a holiday in a warm climate! My husband has some family there and they invited us to come out and spend the holiday with them, so we did.

The first thing I noticed about Phoenix is all of the cactus, oh my gosh, they are everywhere! It’s beautiful and the weather is fabulous, sunny and 75 every single day I was there. There are beautiful red mountains and palm trees, it’s a gorgeous place to visit. I don’t think I could ever live there though. Phoenix seems so foreign compared to New England, I felt like I was visiting another planet! It’s got the southwest vibe going strong, with teal and orange colors on every piece of decor, that took some getting used to.

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I always find it interesting to see the different supermarkets they have in other states. Where we stayed in Mesa, very close to Phoenix, they have a Sprouts, (comparable to Whole Foods), a Basha’s (kind of like a Shop & Shop) and a Fry’s, (which is similar to Shaw’s/Star Market). The first time I heard my husband’s aunt ask if we wanted to “stop at Sprouts”, I had no idea what she was asking us.

While in Phoenix, we discovered this fabulous walking trail in the nearby town of Gilbert, called the Riparian Preserve. This was the best walking trail I’ve ever been on! Gorgeous cactus everywhere, flowers growing wild, hummingbirds flying about and adorable bunny rabbits darting in and out of our path! There were little streams of water, ponds, small waterfalls and great little fishing spots too. We went for a long walk on this beautiful trail every single day we were visiting.

It felt so weird to wear sandals on Thanksgiving, but it was certainly warm enough to do that in Phoenix! I’ve always wanted to celebrate Thanksgiving or Christmas somewhere warm and I finally got to. We could have had our Thanksgiving dinner outside if we wanted to, how cool is that?

So by Friday, we’d had a pretty good taste of what Phoenix is like and then it was time to go home. We got to the airport and my husband got into the TSA Pre-check line, but I haven’t made spending money on that a priority yet, so I got into the regular line. What happened next has never happened to me at the airport before. I haven’t flown a ton, but about a dozen times in my life and I’ve never been asked to remove food from my bags. Liquids, laptop, shoes, sure, but food, no one has ever asked me to do that. This TSA agent wasn’t letting up either, every 30 seconds “if you can hear my voice, remove all food from your bags!!” Well, it was the day after Thanksgiving, and my husband’s aunt and uncle loaded us up with leftovers! I stood in line watching my husband breeze through the pre-check, while I took off my shoes, took out my laptop and made a nice little mountain of fruit snacks, beef jerky, chocolate covered pretzels, a turkey sandwich (of course), some protein bars and an entire loaf of bread. It was right about now, as I’m standing there in my sock feet with a mountain of nonsense, that I was wishing I’d made TSA Pre-check a priority. I finally got through the line, and all of my food was fine. I suppose it’s better to be safe than sorry, apparently people hide things in food. Who knew? Not me! It was smooth sailing after that. I spent my flight taking turns between reading a book and napping and before I knew it, I was home in my nice, warm bed in good ol’ Massachusetts. Phoenix was fun and beautiful, but there’s no place like home.



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