Our Travels

Yet another morning where we had every intention of getting up early for sunrise, bud didn’t.  This time it wasn’t due to the weather, but our sleepiness!  We slept in until around 6:30 and leisurely got ready to check out of the El Tovar.  By this point in our trip I think we’re both getting a bit tired of packing up our suitcases (not to mention lugging them up and down the stairs to our room) every couple of days.  After checking out and loading up the G6 we made our way out of the Grand Canyon via the East Rim drive.  We stopped at a couple more lookouts along the way.  We also got to see some elk close up that Mike spotted while I was driving. 



Despite seeing this sign: 



we did not spot any mountain lions along our way!   At our last stop, the Desert View – which appropriately was our first stop two days before, we took one last look before stocking up on snacks and filling up with gas at the gas station that was conveniently located at the lookout point.  From there we made our way to Sedona about 2.5 hrs away.   Along the way we saw some more elk, but this time they were in the middle of the road.  Luckily we saw them and had enough time to stop and even get a quick shot of the last one jumping over the guardrail: 



We got into Sedona around noon.  Sedona is such a beautiful little town!  Since we arrived a little earlier in the day then expected we decided to head right away to the Chapel of the Holy Cross.  This is the famous church in Sedona that is actually built into the rocks: 



From the top you get wonderful views of not only the red rocks, but also a nearby house.  It is currently on the market for a mere $12 million. Apparently the house belongs to a Romanian gentleman who was on the ground floor of Lasik surgery and has a ridiculous amount of money. The house breaks every building code in Sedona, but he continued anyway paying the fines as he goes. Note the observatory on top of the house which houses a high power telescope: 


Obviously we put a bid in right away!  Shadow and Bailey would love the awesome pool/pond feature with the waterfall! After touring the chapel we decided to see if we could check in to our hotel.  The room wasn’t quite ready so we decided to just walk around the “uptown” area and have some lunch.  We had a delicious lunch at the Cowboy Club.  It was finally warm enough to sit outside and eat.  I had the quesadilla and Mike had the chicken sandwich – and for those of you who are wondering, yes, we definitely have gained weight on this vacation despite all the hiking/walking!!!   Here is a pic of the view at lunch: 



After lunch we looked at some of the shops and made our way back to our hotel, the Matterhorn Inn.  By this point our room was ready.  The hotel is great because it’s right in the middle of all the action.  Our room has a nice view of the main street that runs through Sedona: 

 

We took advantage of the great weather by just chilling on the patio for awhile.  We decided that we wanted to view sunset from an area called airport mesa which is right next to the small airport in Sedona.  Luckily we decided to get there plenty early, because this is a very, very popular spot to view sunset!  We were there about 1.5 hrs before sunset and there was already a crowd.  We had brought a little picnic of wine, crackers, and cheese to enjoy while we waited.   Mike got some beautiful pictures of the light reflecting off of the red rocks: 



 

After dinner we stopped by Picazzo’s for some pizza and wings.  Originally we had planned on taking advantage of the heated pool and hot tub when we got back to our room, but we were pretty tired so we decided to call it another early night!  Plus, we had to be up early the next morning for our 7:00 am jeep tour! 

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 19th, 2009 at 9:51 am and is filed under Out West 2009. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.