Day 3

Welcome back everybody to Day 3 of my time in Arizona! It know it's only been 3 days, but honestly it feels like we've been here a week already. We've done and seen so much in such a short time it's crazy to think that we still have 2 more weeks here. Today was our last day on our own; tomorrow we head to Borderlinks facility who'll be organizing the rest of our activities we do.

Today we started off with a tour of the Sabino canyon. Now the first time I came to Arizona I got to see the Grand Canyon which, let's be honest, was pretty cool. But I think the Sabino canyon, even though it's a lot smaller, was just as beautiful! It's located in the Catalina mountains, which are about 45 minutes away from where we were staying. We got to take a tram ride all over the canyon and see all the different foliage that grows in the canyon. Naturally there were a lot of cacti, but there were also some beautiful trees, some little creeks and rivers and even a little beach!

There are 9 different stops you can get off at and go on one of the many different hiking trails there are, but we didn't do any of those. Unfortunately we didn't see any wildlife, but our tram driver told us that just two weeks ago some hikers had spotted a mountain lion up under one of the rocks! I think it would've been pretty awesome to see a mountain lion out in the wild. Our driver pointed out these three mountain peaks that, when you look at them at a certain angle, you can see Snoopy lying on his back. There were people walking and jogging all over the path and we even saw some people hiking up one of the mountains! It was a beautiful trip to the Sabino canyon, and we might even go back next week when we're back in the area and walk the trail this time!

After the canyon, we went to an art gallery of a painter named DeGrazia. Now I've never really been into art, but I loved this gallery. The way he painted was so interesting. My favourite paintings were in his horse collection.

 There were probably about 30 different horse paintings and they were all beautiful and unique from one another. In fact, I liked them so much that I ended up buying one at the gift shop. It was called Free As The Wind. It's four horses that are running and it looks as though they are part of the wind. It was nice to finally find an art exhibit I enjoyed!

After the art exhibit we went to lunch, and then we continued on to the Mission San Xavier del Bac, which is a Spanish Catholic mission located on the reservation of the Tohono O'odham and it was built back in 1692. It is also called the White Dove of of the Desert. It was a beautiful place and the inside was even more beautiful. It reminded me of the inside of some of the churches I saw when I was in Italy.

 There were some people of the Tohono O'odham outside selling this thing called Frybread. It was basically this deep-fried dough that you could have plain or with honey, powdered sugar, or cinnamon sugar. We got one of each to share as a group and it was actually really good! I think I preferred the powdered sugar one the best. The best part though was that there were stray dogs that were laying outside all around the Mission, and one of them came right up to us while we were eating. I fully admit to feeding him quite a lot of the Frybread because she was so cute and much to skinny! She was very polite and even lied down once she realized I was going to keep feeding her! I was sad when I had to leave her, but then it was time to head back to our hotel!

It was our last night here at the Best Western before we move to the Borderlinks facility and that's where we will be staying for the next 10 days. The girls and I decided to order Chinese food in to eat tonight and then we went on to do our homework. It will be sad leaving the hotel because it was so nice, but we're in for whole new adventures tomorrow! I can't wait!