Day One in Phoenix

I flew down to Arizona Wednesday night for a PRSA Health Academy Conference and brought my mom along for the little adventure. Like I’ve mentioned time and time again–we are both the same grumpy person who prefer to wake up early, go to bed early and eat our calories (think ice cream and other treats) rather than drink them (not big drinkers!)

Day One!

There’s a three hour time difference here which means me going to bed by 7 p.m. since it feels like 10 p.m. and I refuse to adjust to this time. And it also means I’ve been waking up around 3:30 a.m. So we kicked off the day with a hike at 5:30 a.m. at Papago Park, a trail I chose because of the views and nature trails–and the fact that it’s good for beginner hikers. We climbed up the red butte formations as the sun was rising and I only fell on my butt once.

We then rushed back so I could hop on a conference call by 7 a.m. and by 7:30, I was down at the conference! I took a break to grab coffee at Lola with my mom where we walked downtown through Arizona State University’s campus and after the conference, we headed to Scottsdale.

We first headed to the 5th Avenue shopping district in Old Town Scottsdale. There are so many great little shops from clothing to accessories to art and more with coffee shops and restaurants on every corner. We wandered in and out of shops in this area. A few of my favorite include Leela, Piece and Story vintage shop and Luv Luxe luxury consignment.

I grabbed an iced tea from Cartel Coffee Lab and we ate dinner at Hand Cut (we were trying to find Culinary Dropout but couldn’t find it and were too hangry to keep looking!) But Hand Cut was delicious and the inside of it is incredibly instagramable. We shopped at Scottsdale Fashion Square until my mom looked like she’d kill me and then we headed back to the Sheraton downtown!

I’ll be sure to share a full wrap up post of all the places we checked out next week–we’re in Phoenix tomorrow since I have another day at the conference until early afternoon and then we head to Sedona, Flagstaff and Grand Canyon for the rest of the weekend.
Top from Forever 21 | midi skirt from Banana Republic | bag by YSL | platform shoes by Halogen | Quay sunglasses from Retail Therapy

Photography by Mother