My Friend Drowned In A River!?!?

On this sunny Saturday morning 5 of my friends and I woke up bright and early to pile into a minivan and drive to Sedona, AZ! ROAD TRIP!!!!!!!!

I stayed up late the night before finishing a big project for class so I was super duper sleepy but the excitement got me out of bed without a problem and once we were on the road bumping Black Eyed Peas I'd totally forgotten how tired I was. I lost my voice partying in the car before we even got there!

After a few hours that went by super quickly, the scenery started to become breathtakingly beautiful like OMG. I've been to the grand canyon once when I was little which is even more impressive, but I totally forgot how insane the southwest can look!!! I couldnt get my eyes off all of the crazy rock formations O_o

A view from the car

Almost at our destination, we encountered our first predicament. -_- We wanted to go hiking and swim at this creek, but upon approaching the parking lot we saw a sign that said it only allowed cars with five or less people in them to enter. Those of you who have been observant will remember that there were SIX of us including me! We really did not feel like parking at the next closest available area which was like a mile away. NOPE. So my 6 foot 3 friend decided to take one for the team and get buried under everyone's stuff to pass by the entrance undetected. In hindsight I have no idea why we all just went with hiding the tallest guy there. I was also sitting in the back and am only 5'7". Sorry bro...

My poor friend wrapped in a towel, seconds
away from being smothered by a big bag.
(turned green to maintain anonymity)

Anddddd our heist was a success! We parked the car, resuscitated him, and prepared to begin our trek. The hike was actually very easy, but without being boring! And the views were even better up close :0 I kept stopping to take photos of everything! 

My buddies walking oh yeahhh

We crossed streams and climbed rocks and after about 45 minutes we found a perfect spot to set up our base. This big flat rock across the creek shaded by a tree was perfect to fit the six of us comfortably and have a picnic on. All we had to do was cross a precarious arrangement of rocks amid the running water, and well... we made it! And NO ONE got wet. Being the courageous soul I am, I crossed first and confirmed everything was stable so my friends could make it across safely B^) We all left our stuff on the rock and immediately jumped in the water. It was soo cold I actually went numb for liek 30 seconds Σ(ﾟДﾟ；) but after I got used to it it felt really good in the Arizona October heat~ I had soo much fun splashing around with everyone but we had to be careful not to get dragged away by the current!

After we were all tired it was time to have lunch :3 We spread all our towels out on the rock and chatted while we ate yummy food. I'd woken up early to make spam musubi and shared some with everyone. My friend brought a jar of pickles and sweet lemon soda, and when we finished the pickles we decided to try mixing the pickle juice with the soda. It was actually really yummy, seriously. At one point the friend we had hidden in the car earlier decided to go set up his camera on a rock in the middle of the creek to film a timelapse of us, which came out super cute. But when he went to go stop the recording, disaster struck! The current pushed him over and he fell into the water, getting his clothes completely wet. Poor boy. Thankfully he was not hurt... and at least the whole thing was caught on camera, teehee!

The creek we swam in, BIG ROCK IN THE BACK...

His clothes quickly dried on the walk back to the car thanks to it being SO hot. I made the bad decision to not put my shoes back on until we reached dirt, and when we had to cross this big patch of small rocks they were much sharper than anticipated and it hurt my feet SO BAD!!! But I was too stubborn to put my shoes on so I just dealt with it ヾ(▼ﾍ▼；) I was sad to leave nature, but we had more fun to get to so it was fine. We all got back in the car and started toward Sedona proper. About ten minutes into the drive though, one of my friends realized she forgot her SHOES in the parking lot somehow. She felt really bad, but we just went back and they let her run in to go get them. Whew. For real this time, we started the drive to the downtown. There was a huuuge traffic jam to get in which was annoying, but we persevered (҂◡_◡) ᕤ

The downtown was really beautiful and old! There were a bunch of pretty fountains and mosaics and shrines, and with all the stone buildings and trees around it was surprisingly cool. I had such a good time going around to different touristy gift shops with my friends. We all got super cute matching handmade fish beads from a bead shop. I saw these really cute raku mice in one shop.

The mouse babies ♡ No way I was spending $36 today though

We also went to this really cute chai spot (literally called chai spot) and I had a delicious iced chai and milk rusk. I wish I'd taken better photos of it because the place was really cute and so was my order! There were cool rugs everywhere that we sat on and sipped. The rest of the day basically consisted of us walking around Sedona, taking in the views, and exploring overpriced shops selling cool rocks. We actually ran into a mutual friend of mine that also went to our uni by coincidence on the street! This is definitely one of the most common weekend destinations for students there so i wasn't too surprised since we were on a short fall break, but it was a cute encounter nonetheless. We watched the sun start to set behind the BIG ROCK we'd been seeing all day and it was so beautiful~~~  

I like this photo... we look silly

It was best to leave before it got too dark, so we got in the car, albeit reluctantly, and began the trip back home. On the way, we stopped in a natural coop to have a snack, and I bought a new herbal infusion with berries and flowers in it (it's really delish). The sleepiness started to hit me and all my friends who weren't in the driver's seat, so everyone was dozing off a little but you know we still blasted loud music the whole way. Sorry Ms. Chauffeur... I fell asleep almost as soon as I entered my room (_ _ ) . . z Z

Though it was only one day, this was a super memorable trip. I became so much closer with my uni friends and I'm just happy I got to see such pretty scenery~~ I hope we get to do something similar again soon... thank you for reading!!!!!!!!!!!