I suppose that's the nature of the beast. I mean, if a dream easily comes true, then it is hardly worthy of bucket list status, right?
But even so, I thought I had worked through all the complexities of my latest obsession.
I wanted to see saguaro cacti in bloom. And of course, capture some photos.
And thanks to the timing of my fourth-born's college schedule, I was destined to be in the right place on earth at the right month of the year. With a cacti-hunting side trip and photo shoot carved into the stone of our morning agenda, I figured the rest of the dream-realization process would be gravy.
Ha.
Little did I know that it's relatively easy to find saguaro cacti in bloom and admire said blossoms from afar. But to get up close and personal with those pale yellow beauties, I soon learned, is a tall order.
Here's why.
^ The flowers perch on the tip top of he cacti. And those saguaros are big boys.
As my almost six foot tall baby so aptly demonstrates, the saguaro blossoms are a long way away from the human eye.
^ A long, long way away.
Ugh. So frustrating.
Not gonna lie, I got cranky right away. I was dog tired and quickly melting in the Arizona sun. I was facing a 1500-mile solo two-day drive and in no mood for messing around.
No doubt about it, my grump factor was taking the edge off this bucket list moment. And I was just about ready to give up on the photos altogether.
And then my daughter did a beautiful thing.
She made it her personal mission to get some shots of those flowers.
She scrambled up and down the steep, gravely hillside until she found a cacti within reach.
She used every inch of her impressively long arms and legs to hoist her camera up, up, up and over the top of that enormous and lethally prickly cactus.
And she snapped up some bucket list-worthy photographs of those darling little flowers.
And now, I am very, very happy for my desert bloom bucket list dreams have all come true.
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I've been lucky enough to visit the Sonoran Desert and the magical cacti who live there. Read more about my adventures:
Wow! Thank you, fourth-born! :)
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