Memorial Day Weekend Part 1 - Sedona
Erin's friend Tori came out from New York to visit for Memorial Day weekend. That makes her visitor #2 (Kevin being the first), but the first person who came exclusively to see us! With only 3 days to work with, we wanted to show her the most cool stuff in the shortest amount of time. Considering that a lot of cool stuff in Arizona is really far from Phoenix, we figured Sedona would be our best bet. We planned on heading up Saturday, camping overnight, and coming back Sunday. On Sunday we would see whatever parts of Sedona we missed on Saturday, plus go to Jerome.
Unfortunately, it rained all day Saturday. It never rains here and the one time it rained was when we actually had a visitor. We spent a lot of time on Saturday driving around Sedona trying to decide what to do. Camping was quickly ruled out; it was far too cold and wet. Instead we tried to find a hotel, but most were booked up. It was Memorial Day weekend, after all.
We finally found the Slide Rock Lodge. It was up Route 89A going toward Slide Rock (duh...). It was cheap and comfortable. It had a rustic, log cabin feel. The heat didn't work, but we had our sleeping bags, so we were ok. There was also a space heater that eventually warmed the room up.
A couple years ago Erin and I visited Gettysburg, PA and we bought an audio tour. It was pretty cool. You just throw the CD in and drive yourself around while a narrator explains thing to you. We thought it might be a good idea to try it again, so we bought an audio tour at the visitor's center. It was narrated by a dude named Blake. It worked out really well. I am a total believer in audio tours.
We did some of the tour on Saturday, but on account of the rain, we did most of it on Sunday. Here are some of our pictures from Sedona with descriptions. Check our more on Flickr.
Of course, we have many pictures of the famous red rocks.
I took this picture on Saturday. It rained off an on while we were at this elevation. I think it was around 6000 feet. There were also little remnants of snow in the shade. I love the pictures we took from that overlook because they remind me of Thomas Cole paintings. This on is my favorite. Erin pointed out how the clouds are parted over the valley.
We visited the Palatki Ruins, a Native American cliff dwelling site. There were many petroglyphs and theses remnants of a structure on the side of the cliff. This older gentleman was the Park Service interpreter who explained the site. He was very interesting to talk to and gave us tons of information. Getting there was a chore, though. Our car is not great on dirt roads and you have to drive down mile of dirt roads to reach the ruins. We saw lots of cows.
On Sunday we stopped briefly in Jerome and then headed back to Phoenix. The clouds from Saturdays rain made the pictures we took on Sunday have the coolest skies. It turned out to be a great trip even in spite of the rain and the remarkably poor service at Sedona's vegan restaurant, D'lish. In all fairness, we went there twice and the first time it was alright. The food was good both times, but on our second visit they ran out of what Erin ordered and didn't tell her until they brought Tori and I our food. Then Erin had to go and wait in line to order again. When she told the girl working the register what happened and asked to have her order expedited, the girl was really rude and unaccommodating. Erin ended up just getting her money back and eating half my sandwich. I don't mind mistakes, but come on...being polite is easy.
Unfortunately, it rained all day Saturday. It never rains here and the one time it rained was when we actually had a visitor. We spent a lot of time on Saturday driving around Sedona trying to decide what to do. Camping was quickly ruled out; it was far too cold and wet. Instead we tried to find a hotel, but most were booked up. It was Memorial Day weekend, after all.
We finally found the Slide Rock Lodge. It was up Route 89A going toward Slide Rock (duh...). It was cheap and comfortable. It had a rustic, log cabin feel. The heat didn't work, but we had our sleeping bags, so we were ok. There was also a space heater that eventually warmed the room up.
A couple years ago Erin and I visited Gettysburg, PA and we bought an audio tour. It was pretty cool. You just throw the CD in and drive yourself around while a narrator explains thing to you. We thought it might be a good idea to try it again, so we bought an audio tour at the visitor's center. It was narrated by a dude named Blake. It worked out really well. I am a total believer in audio tours.
We did some of the tour on Saturday, but on account of the rain, we did most of it on Sunday. Here are some of our pictures from Sedona with descriptions. Check our more on Flickr.
Of course, we have many pictures of the famous red rocks.
I took this picture on Saturday. It rained off an on while we were at this elevation. I think it was around 6000 feet. There were also little remnants of snow in the shade. I love the pictures we took from that overlook because they remind me of Thomas Cole paintings. This on is my favorite. Erin pointed out how the clouds are parted over the valley.
We visited the Palatki Ruins, a Native American cliff dwelling site. There were many petroglyphs and theses remnants of a structure on the side of the cliff. This older gentleman was the Park Service interpreter who explained the site. He was very interesting to talk to and gave us tons of information. Getting there was a chore, though. Our car is not great on dirt roads and you have to drive down mile of dirt roads to reach the ruins. We saw lots of cows.
On Sunday we stopped briefly in Jerome and then headed back to Phoenix. The clouds from Saturdays rain made the pictures we took on Sunday have the coolest skies. It turned out to be a great trip even in spite of the rain and the remarkably poor service at Sedona's vegan restaurant, D'lish. In all fairness, we went there twice and the first time it was alright. The food was good both times, but on our second visit they ran out of what Erin ordered and didn't tell her until they brought Tori and I our food. Then Erin had to go and wait in line to order again. When she told the girl working the register what happened and asked to have her order expedited, the girl was really rude and unaccommodating. Erin ended up just getting her money back and eating half my sandwich. I don't mind mistakes, but come on...being polite is easy.
posted by Eric | 10:02 AM
1 Comments:
That's a cool cow. What makes the Red Cliffs red?
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