I’m BACK! From yet *another* trip?
I guess you could just say that I’m reallyyy taking advantage of the fact that I can work from anywhere now, coupled with the fact that Jeep offered to loan me the Cherokee so I figured why drive in LA when I can drive somewhere new?!??
My mom ended up flying out to me last weekend, which was SO nice since my parents aren’t usually out this way. We drove from Los Angeles to Palm Springs, Phoenix, Sedona, Munds Park, Flagstaff and back in just 4 days and lemme tell ya, we had the BEST time. My dad suggested we keep a driving journal, so I think I’ll just go ahead and lay out this blog post that way! Plus, I have a LOT of photos to share with you, and scroll all the way down to watch the YouTube video I made recapping our trip.
Day 1: Palm Springs – Departed LA at 2:30pm, arrive in Palm Springs at 6pm. Traffic was BONKERS and then we ended up having dinner at the Ace Hotel, and Ovi ran around the pool (yep, it’s dog friendly!) while we munched on salad and fish tacos. We stayed the night at the Hyatt in downtown (yep, also dog friendly) where we relaxed, got some work done, and went to bed early. Fun fact: Ovi barely slept, so we didn’t really either – he was obsessed with going into the bathtub to hang out?
Day 2: Munds Park – Grabbed breakfast downstairs at the pool (SO good) then hit the road by 8:30am. The drive to Phoenix was long and not very exciting, but we got there by 1pm and had lunch with family friends. We also grabbed cookies and cupcakes from A Bakeshop – highly recommend their Ricotta Cookies! 2 more hours up to Munds Park where we got to our suuuper cute Airbnb. We were exhausted and just got takeout BBQ from Agee’s right in “town” – I don’t know if you could even call it that, but MAN is it pretty there.
Day 3: Sedona – Enjoyed coffee at the Airbnb then went out for a hike in Sedona. It’s about a 35 minute drive from Munds Park and it’s a beautiful one with red rock formations. We went for a moderately easy hike at Jordan Trail, then got lunch in town at the dog-friendly Creekside Café complete with a dog menu. The afternoon brought us back home to get some work done/relax, then out to Flagstaff for the early evening to browse. We got cheese, charcuterie, fruit, wine and chocolate from Whole Foods to enjoy back at the house for dinner in and went to bed early.
Day 4: Flagstaff – We cleaned up, packed up, then left for a hike just north of Flagstaff at Aspen Corner before hitting the road towards home. Turns out it’s about 35 degrees out there this time of year and we were not prepared? I think we lasted about 30 minutes before calling it quits and our hands were numb, but we met these nice girls that had two dogs and Ovi played with one of them for so long! It was a good setup for our 8 hour drive back to LA, but not before a pit stop at Biff’s Bagels for fuel. We arrived back home at about 6pm, got takeout Poké from my local favorite LemonShark, then watched tv before passing back out.
And just like that, it was over. Thank you to Jeep for loaning us the Cherokee for a smooth, comfortable ride and giving us an excuse to go on an epic roadtrip together? Watch the recap below and thanks for stopping by!
xo Jordan