It has been awhile...

Because my laptop crashed for the third time! But I'm now back up and running, which is very exciting. Last weekend, Megan (sister) came to visit Tucson. We had a jam packed few days, but fun nonetheless!

Megan came on her birthday (Jan 16th) and left the following Tuesday. On her birthday, we went out for some drinks (and ended up drinking a pretty nasty drink that the bartenders started on fire, which was quite exciting).

It really was that bad. We spent the following day walking around the Desert Museum, which is always a fun time. We even got to see the javalinas!

We call this the "Arizona initiation picuture," although you don't have to REALLY sit on it like Megan did, just fake it (she missed that small detail, I learned after hearing her yelp "OUCH!").

That evening, the East Area Residence Halls (which includes the hall that I run) had a big block party behind our buildings, at which there was pizza, drinks, a "photobooth," a guitar hero, and a blow up "race" house. We went there for a few hours, and then headed home for a couple of drinks and TV watching (Amazing Race of course!).

During her visit, Megan also found a new passion: skateboarding. Falling right in front some people didn't slow her down [notice the man on the right staring at her in mid-fall].

After an afternoon of skateboarding and tennis playing in 70+ degree weather, we headed to Tumamock Hill for a short climb.

There is one "person" in Tucson who really misses Megan, and that is Peach. Whenever she had the chance, Megan would play, pet and run around with Peach. And if they weren't running around together, they were sleeping next to each other. (The turtles miss her too).

The next day, we headed out to Padagonia, Arizona - to the "Tree of Life" rejuvination Center, an all raw food retreat center for lunch. Megan is very interested in eating raw. Here is a picture of our lunch.

Red pepper with Zucchini, and "bread" (a bunch of dehydrated veggies compressed together).

We then headed down to Mexico, or so we thought. On the way, we saw a sign for Patagonia Lake State Park, and Megan suggested we check it out, which ended being a VERY fun idea. After stopping at an EXTREMELY beautiful parking area (see Megan doing Yoga next to a cliff like the crazy girl she is), and after a REALLY hard laugh because we could see the "lake" or more like small pond in the eyes of two people who grew up on Lake Erie, we headed down to the park.

After paying the entrance fee, we were SHOCKED to see that the lake is acutally huge!! We pulled into the marina area, and read that you could rent canoes, paddle boats and kayaks until 4:00pm (it was 3:20 at the time), so we ran up to the area where you purchased them to see if we still had a chance at heading out on the lake. We were thrilled when the man working shared that he is acutally really behind in his work, so we can stay out until 5:00. We rented a canoe (of course!) and with a warning that the water is a chilling 45 degrees, we headed out onto the lake.

After an hour and a half of canoeing (and not tipping once!), we headed back in - trying to decide what to do next. Since it would be getting dark soon, we weren't sure if Mexico would be a good idea. Megan then realized: "I made my facebook status say that I'm going to Mexico today, we have to at least go for a second!", so we drove down there and stayed for about half an hour. We each bought bought a pair of earrings (which came with shots of tequila, of course) and headed back to Tucson. It was a long and exausting day, but definitly a great way to end the visit!