Category: Family

After being *fiscally responsible* like a grown-up and not traveling for our October anniversary or over Thanksgiving break, we are so excited to have another family trip on the horizon. We will be returning to Tucson, Arizona! We visited once before in Spring 2024, but decided that there was still plenty to do on a return trip.

I’m currently figuring out a plan for this trip, so please let me know if you have any recommendations I should add!

Here’s our current thoughts:

Day 1: Fly to Phoenix

I guess it should really say “Evening 1” because we aren’t flying out until late at night and arriving in Phoenix. You may be wondering why we aren’t flying into Tucson… Well, there are no direct flights from Baltimore to Tucson and last time we visited, our first flight was delayed so many times we missed our connecting flight. It took us 21 hours of travel, 3 airplanes, 1 night spent trying to sleep on a bench in the Houston Airport playground, and 1 Uber before we finally arrived at our Tucson house.

This time, we decided to fly into Phoenix (yay direct flight!). This allows us to get in a full day of work, before packing up and heading to the airport. We will arrive in Arizona after midnight and then stay in a nearby hotel for the night.

Day 2: Pick up our Turo rental car and Drive to Tucson

Once we wake up, we will pick up our Turo rental car, find some delicious breakfast and drive to Tucson. The drive from Phoenix to Tucson looks like it’s a little less than 2 hours, but there are a few fun places to stop along the way, including: Picacho Peak State Park, Casa Grande and Queen Creek Olive Mill. Once we make our way to Tucson, we will check into our VRBO and probably stock up at a nearby grocery store.

Day 3 – Day 7: All the Tucson!

We have 5 full days in Tucson, so we plan to do all the exploring. Some places we will most likely re-visit from our last trip: the Arizona-Sonoran Desert museum ($30 per person), the Saguaro National Park (East one day and West another day, using America the Beautiful Park Pass), and the Mt. Lemmon Scenic Byway.

Other fun ideas on the list:

• The Winterhaven Festival of Lights – hundreds of homes are decked out in festive lights and decorations! There is live music, food vendors and even horse-drawn carriage rides.
• Sabino Canyon
• We will absolutely be checking out Tucson thrift stores!
• Forth Avenue, the Mercando District and Saguaro Square Small Business Mall
• The Flandrau Planetarium
• We will absolutely be revisiting Charred Pie, the place where I had the best pizza I’ve ever had in my entire existence.

Day 8: Tucson to Phoenix to Home

On our last day, we will pack up the rental car, check out of our VRBO and make our way back to Phoenix. We’re not really in a hurry though, as we are not flying out until late in the evening. So, I’m not sure if we will do stuff in Tucson, stop somewhere halfway to explore, or perhaps spend some time exploring Phoenix before we make our way to the airport.

Once there, we will return our rental car, grab some dinner and fly back home. We are getting in quite late, so once we make the drive from our home airport to our house, we then plan to sleep as long as we want before we go and pick up the dogs at the dog sitter and enjoy all the ‘welcome home’ snuggles.

I can’t wait! If you have any recommendations for places we shouldn’t miss – whether it be food options, hikes, stores, or views – let me know!

You know how sometimes you promise your kid a prize for something, and then later have to figure out how to deliver on it? Yeah, that was us. Jack crushed it in 6th grade, landing on the honor roll all four semesters. As a little reward, we came up with the idea of an end-of-year prize. Then came 7th grade. Jack worked his butt off again and made the honor roll another three semesters in a row. By spring, things were looking a little shaky, so we sweetened the deal: if he could pull his grades back up to all A’s and B’s for an eighth straight semester, he’d earn something big… an overnight trip to NYC.

Which he earned! YAY for Jack!

The only problem? Summer got busy, and the thought of wandering around the city in hot, sticky, swampy weather wasn’t exactly appealing. So, we kept pushing it off. And pushing it off. Until… well, basically the very last minute. Jack and I finally squeezed in our NYC adventure over the weekend, just in time for him to roll straight into his first day of school the very next morning.

Where We Stayed: Motto by Hilton New York City Chelsea

This is our third time back at the Motto by Hilton New York City Chelsea hotel. As always, the check-in was easy, the rooms were clean, and the price was good by NYC standards. It is also about a 10-minute walk from the train station, and within easy access to lots of shops and restaurants.

What We Packed

When we do an overnight in NYC, we keep the packing to a minimum with just a backpack for each of us. This was Jack’s first time in the city in the summer, so it was so nice not to have to be bundled up in coats, hats and gloves! We each pack a change of clothes, electronics (Kindle for me, Nintendo Switch for him), and toothbrushes.

What We Did: Chelsea, Midtown, Chinatown & Little Italy

We arrived in the city around 2pm and walked over to the hotel. Our room wasn’t quite ready yet, so we ventured out to grab some food at Crompton Ale House (YUM!), then back to the hotel to drop off our backpacks and charge our devices.

We took an Uber to Midtown, to spend some time in Jack’s favorite stores – the Nintendo store and the Lego store. He was absolutely thrilled to pick out a couple new Lego sets to add to his collection.

Lots of streets were shut down for little street festivals, so we decided that instead of Ubering back, we’d just walk the 20+ streets back to Chelsea since it was a beautiful day. We poked around looking at stores on our way and had an energy-boost stop of some FroYo about halfway through our walk. By time we got back to Chelsea, we were ready to be lazy, so we grabbed some food at the nearby Whole Foods, had a bed picnic and enjoyed the sunset from our room.

The next morning, we made a quick run to a nearby Starbucks for coffee and breakfast sandwiches and headed back to the room to relax for a bit. Our check-out time was noon, so we packed up our backpacks and left them with the front desk for the day.

We took an Uber to Chinatown and checked out lots of stores in the Mott Street area, making our way from Chinatown to Little Italy. One of our favorites was Yunhong Chopsticks — because they have so many sets of beautiful chopsticks to choose from. We each picked out our favorite set, as well as a set to bring home for Travis for our next sushi or ramen night. I also enjoyed Senti Senti, which is a shop devoted to k-beauty products. With the help of a super helpful salesperson, I bought a couple items I can’t wait to try out!

Oh and we had some absolutely delicious crepes while walking around Chinatown as well. Jack had one with bananas and Nutella and I got a mini GF version which included strawberries, bananas, custard cream, whipped yogurt, chocolate pearls and crushed pistachio. So good! Absolutely would eat them again, but Jack recommends sticking with the mini version because his was HUGE.

We hopped an Uber back to our hotel, picked up our backpacks and then walked over to Eatly for lunch/dinner. I’m obsessed with their pesto gnocchi, so I will take any chance I can to get some in my belly. We didn’t have much time to spare, so we packed up our leftovers and power-walked to the train station, thankfully getting there with the perfect amount of time to use the restrooms and line up for our train.

And just like that our whirlwind trip to NYC was over. It was one of those last-minute plans that came together and a really fun end to our summer!