I had Thursday and Friday off for my fall break and so we decided to go to Tucson. Gordon and I were going to take a trip up to Safford, and enjoy the cooler weather and maybe even go apple picking, but we decided not to because of the gas prices.

So we went with my parents to Mt. Lemon instead (this is Weston and Grandma!). It took about an hour and a half from my parent's house to get all the way to the ski lifts. It's amazing because as you go up the mountain, you're surrounded by Saugaro cacti and rocky desert, but before you know it you're deep in a pinewood forest and the temperature has dropped about 30 degrees.
I desperately wanted to see some of the aspen trees up there and for once enjoy a little glimpse of autumn. We were in luck! Every now and then we saw tiny bursts of flaming red, orange and yellow leaves coming through the pine trees. When we got to the top of the mountain, the air was crisp and cool and I actually got to put on my jacket! We drove through a cloud the whole way there and so we even got to enjoy a little bit of rain. I was in heaven--if only it were like this 9,000 feet lower in the valley.

We stopped at a shop to get some fudge, but had to leave pretty quickly. The wind was so violent that many trees had been knocked down. We took this picture just as a group of firemen were removing the remains of a pine tree that had fallen in the road while we were inside the store. I'm so glad I got my autumn fix--my dream is to someday live where there are seasons and where it's not still 100 degrees in mid-October!