Arizona Travelogue

I know I need to upload pictures because they are way cooler...I will soon! However, I wanted to write a little about our trip before I forget.

Day 1: We woke up at 3:45 to get to airport on time for our 6am flight. It was so tough, but worth it for a direct flight! Because of the time change, we got to Phoenix at 6:30am which was pretty cool. It was hot, but we beelined out of there and headed straight to the Grand Canyon because the weather forecast was really bad -- 80 today, but 60's and rain for the next 2 days! It took us about 4 hours to get there, but it's a neat drive. You start out in the desert and start climbing into greener landscape until you get to Flagstaff 2 hours and 5000 feet to the north. Of course, the temperature is alot cooler up there as well. The canyon was 90 minutes of north of Flagstaff. The first sight of the canyon is breath taking and you know why so many people come to visit! We walked along the rim for 2-3 miles until we got to the lodges because I was starving! The lodges at the Grand Canyon are pretty old (100 years or so), but the El Tovar where we ate was very cool and had Navajo Indian lodge throughout. I think it would have been pretty cool to stay here one day.

From this point, there is a trail that leads all the way down to the canyon floor with a million switchbacks. It was so tempting! We were pretty tired though and I didn't think it was good to even consider it. Half of the lookouts on the west end were closed due to construction which completely sucked, but the east scenic views were really awesome. We stayed for the sunset, but the sun was behind the clouds, so it was bust.

We drove 90 minutes back to Flagstaff and checked into our hotel, the Little America. It was so trippy - like going back 40 years. But the rooms were really nice and had a giant flat screen TV opposite the bed.

For dinner we went into Flagstaff. Turns out it's a hopping joint since it's a college town. It was like being back in Ann Arbor, which given the remoteness of Flagstaff and the size of the town was a really nice surprise. We were in the mood for Italian, so we went to a casual place recommended by Frommers... turns it out the whole menu was stepped up gourmet with sweet meats and livers and all sorts of crazy things. It was really fun, but after being up for about 20 hours at that point, probably wasted on us!

Day 2. It was going to rain everywhere we wanted to go and it was cold in Flagstaff... so it was time to head out to the Hoover Dam, where it was sunny and 80. The Hoover Dam was about 3 hours away to the west (only 30 minutes from Vegas). We drove through about 2 hours of rain along a very boring stretch of high way -- there is not much between Flagstaff and Vegas. We did parallel Route 66 for a good portion of the drive, so for kicks we stopped in Kingman Arizona a famous diner of yesteryear that Oprah visited a few years ago. It was a good burger and fries! Another hour on the road we made it the dam, which also really takes your breath away too. Matt was thrilled I indulged on our little side trip, but I was happy just be out of the cold and rain!

Day 3. With better weather in the forecast we headed down to Sedona, which is only 30 miles from Flagstaff. The drive takes an hour because you have to drive down into a valley to reach the town from the north and there were a ton of switchbacks. Sedona is way cooler than I expected - a whole town in the middle of a beautiful valley full orange-red mesas dotted with green shrubs and catci. We did three hikes, 1 to the top of a mesa (I took it easy, but it was still a nice little workout) and one around the perimeter of the mesa. It was really fun and definitely the highlight of our trip. I definitely could have come back for another day of hiking.

Day 4. We had to leave to go home, but we still had time to visit 2 places in Phoenix before our flight. First was Taliesin West, the winter home of Frank Lloyd Wright. I must say that I really enjoyed the tour of the Oak Park home much better. After that we stopped by the Desert Botanical Garden which was a whole lot of cacti. It was still a really nice park, but I was too hot to really enjoy it. So much for moving to Phoenix...

I'll have time to the pictures tomorrow...back to work!