Wow! Where is 2017 going?! In January, I had the awesome opportunity to travel to Dallas, Texas, and in March, I traveled to Scottsdale, Arizona. In just a few days, I’ll be traveling to Waco, Texas so I had to squeeze in a recap of my experience in Scottsdale before I pack my suitcase again!

Scottsdale, Arizona Travel Guide

I traveled to Scottsdale, Arizona on behalf of With Grace and Gold, with Andra, Tarah, and Kat. Every few months, we plan “working vacations” to explore new places, talk about business, and of course, spend quality time together as friends! (Our first gathering was in Charleston, and our second was in Savannah.) Here’s a bit about our trip:

We arrived in Scottsdale on Thursday. We explored Old Town and, of course, we had world famous guacamole. Old Town is really awesome. It’s a walkable area, filled with tons of restaurants and shops. Some shops are really touristy, but that’s the fun of being a tourist, after all. We went to sleep early on Thursday — both because it was a long day of traveling, and also because Friday was a big day for our business.

On Friday, we celebrated the launch of our all-new Template Collection at With Grace and Gold: a collection of customizable designs for Showit. (Coincidentally, I also celebrated 2 full years of being a full-time small business owner!) We began the day with a Facebook Live / Instagram Live celebration. By lunch, we were back in Old Town, devouring pizza. We also had the awesome opportunity to visit Showit’s headquarters — which was such a cool experience. Visiting Showit’s headquarters was like the cherry on top of an already-awesome day!

We visited the Desert Botanical Gardens — which I highly, highly recommend. The sun was setting, the weather was perfect, and we got to see cacti… and lots of them! I snapped about a million photos, but here are just a few:

We visited Sedona on Saturday. It was just a 2-hour drive away from Scottsdale. Needless to say, we sang our hearts out all drive long!  Sedona’s scenery was absolutely breathtaking! It was a cool, misty day, and there was something so magical about visiting such a beautiful place with such great friends. We visited the Chapel of the Holy Cross, pictured below, which offered a really beautiful view of Sedona.

Before our trip came to an end, my friend Tarah of Tarah Elise Photography shared her amazing gift and we had a mini photo session! You could definitely say all of my southwestern, desert dreams came true!

I’m so grateful to have traveled to Arizona, especially while it was chilly in Wisconsin! Spring is just around the corner, though, and I’m so excited for more sunshine everywhere!