Weekend in Arizona

Who knew that I could like a state with so little water, so much?

If I ever had the tough decision about where to have a second home, it might be in Arizona. We had a great time visiting for a long weekend.

Although we got in to Pheonix a little later than planned, our trip started on a fun note when the car rental company upgraded us (with a little coaxing) to a Prius. Fun to drive!

The next morning we woke up to green grass, beautiful sun, and a balmy 70 degrees. After breakfast at the hotel, we took off going North. We stopped only for a cord so that we could plug our iPods into the auxiliary jack. Off we went with great tunes playing, the car getting over 44 miles to the gallon, and the sun shining.

We stopped on our way up north to see "Montezuma's Castle", which is actually the site of an ancient Native American settlement built into the side of a sandstone cliff. We had a great time walking around under the sycamore trees and near the river.

After a stop in Flagstaff's historic downtown for lunch, we headed north to the Grand Canyon. Through a combination of walking and driving, we saw a good portion of the south rim, leaving just after sunset.  We drove back down to the small town of Oak Creek Canyon (just outside of Sedona) where we stayed at a bed and breakfast type condo development called Los Posados (Hooray for the Suggestion from LLC!) It was a beautiful one bedroom with fire place, huge soaking tub, and a fountain in the courtyard that looked out on the red rock buttes just north of town.  The next morning we enjoyed a three course meal prepared for us by a chef before heading off for the day's adventures.

We drove just a mile then to a hiking area on the edge of town. After examining the map, we set off on what seemed was going to be an easy hike around a couple of buttes. Because of pregnant status, we were much more conservative about what we took on, and still that was hard. In the end, we forgot our sunscreen, we might have missed a turn, and we ran out of water towards the end of the approximately six mile hike. Although I ended up barely being able to get into the car after that because I was so sore, it really was worth it to see the desert up close and to spend part of the day enjoying the natural wonders in about 70 degree weather. It was beautiful! Unfortunately, the sun burn was still to come.

We headed into Sedona for a late lunch, some window shopping, and a look around town. We ate at a bread company that had great bread, an amazing view of the red rocks, and only so-so sandwiches, but it was nice to sit outside and enjoy the shade. That evening we drove up through the Oak Creek Canyon (which reminded us both quite a bit of Oregon) it was beautifully green with lots of water running down from the mountains. The drive was a great look at the whole region between Sedona and Flagstaff.

The only draw back of a leisurely drive around sunset was that we arrived in Phoenix from up north a little late. That night we stayed at a golf resort that husband had booked on priceline and as we arrived and could feel the heat of the day disipating, I felt a little tinge disappointment that we were leaving the next day. I hadn't gotten enough of the beautiful warm weather! It was made worse by the fact that we had gotten a pool-side room and that it was slightly too cold once the sun went down to swim in the pool. But eventually that feeling was overcome by the desire to eat something.

We went out for a nice dinner and came back to the hotel ready for an early bed-time. The next morning I was excited to get up and make the most of our last Arizona day. Jff went out to get bagles for breakfast while I packed us up. Originally, our plan was to stay at the resort for part of the day to swim and enjoy the pool, but Sunday dawned with not as much sun and was a little slow to warm up. So instead of the pool, we headed out to husband's favorite Phoenix attraction: Talieson West one of the former homes of designer and architect, Frank Lloyd Wright. We spent two hours on a fascinating tour of his home with many stories about his life and design theories. Although pretty spendy, one of the best tours of a historical spot I have been on.

In the afternoon (after some fun with the GPS) we spent our last few hours in town at the Phoenix Desert Botanical Garden (which happily is very close to the airport). To our great delight, we found out that there was currently a Chihuly glass display at the Gardens. To make it even better, the blown glass pieces (titled The Nature of Glass) were interspersed with various type of cacti. It was truly beautiful and was really fun to see. It was a great way to spend our last few hours.

The only unfortunate thing about how fun the gardens were was that we got the airport a little late... The end of our trip was all aflutter in returning the rental car, taking the shuttle to the terminal, and in husband almost not getting a seat on our over-booked flight. In the end, we made it home safely and only cried a little bit about the snow that had fallen while we were gone. Nothing like coming home to a Minnesota hug of about fifteen degrees!