Garrett and I have returned from our (first) Grad Adventure of 2011. It feels like we were gone forever, and we had so much fun real life is going to take some getting used to.
We opted out of ringing in the New Year at midnight because our alarm clock went off at 3:00am New years day, and three hours of sleep just didn’t seem like it would be enough.
But here were are at 4:00am waiting outside in the FREEZING cold for our taxi to pick us up and take us to the airport. (The community is gated and I wasn’t quite sure how to tell the taxi to get in through the gate without giving our secret code, and that seemed like a bad idea so outside it was). I was obviously way too excited about starting the adventure, while Garrett was thinking oh em gee is this starting already. (I had no make up on and my face was looking pretty awful from the wind/cold so black and white it is.)
After a flight from OKC to Memphis. We headed to Phoenix. I planned nothing (except the rental car) which is so unlike me, but I was so worried something would happen and we wouldn’t get where we needed to be and the whole thing would be a bust. So, we just decided to wing it, and it totally worked!
When Garrett went to the Fiesta Bowl a few years ago the stayed in Tempe, and ate the “best sushi of (his) life”. He really, really wanted to try to get back there and I’m always up for a trip to see another college town so we headed to Tempe (which is the opposite direction of the Fiesta Bowl) in search of a restaurant we didn’t know the name of and only the general location.
But, we found it! Garrett was soo excited! The sushi lived up to everything he remembered! We walked around ASU’s “campus corner” (that’s what it’s called in Norman, I’m not sure what they call it) and hit up Urban Outfitters for some matching sunglasses (no pictures, sad). After that it was time to find something for me to eat.
We found In-N-Out burger! I was so excited to try something I’ve heard so many people rave about (and Garrett had to try some to!) It was really pretty good, and super, super cheap! After lunch in Tempe it was time to head to Glendale for the Fiesta Bowl!
We flew to Arizona without tickets to the game (because that’s how we do it) and we got a pair for steal, it cost more to park in the parking lot than it did for one of us to get in to the game. We picked our seats because there were a lot open and enjoyed the game! OU finally broke its BCS losing streak and I was so happy to be there for it!
After the game and the presentation of OUr trophy we had some time to kill, see when this adventure changed from a Road Trip to a plane trip, I didn’t book a hotel room for Saturday night, I was a little bit afraid we would sleep through the alarm clock and miss our flight so I figured we could spend 6ish hours in the airport waiting for our flight. Luckily, it went a little better than that, we got a bite to eat at Johnny Rockets after the game and then went to a midnight movie after that (I slept from the time the previews started until Garrett woke me up during the credits!) when the movie was over it was about 2:30am and we only had 3.5 hours until our flight to Denver, by the time we took the rental car back and got to the air port we were only about 2.5 hours early. That was a brilliant thing if you ask me, saved us $100 on a hotel room and we didn’t have to worry about not waking up. I only wish I had taken pictures of Garrett sleeping in the airport.
Denver and skiing coming up tomorrow!
