Our Travels

We woke up at 6 am for our last full day of vacation.  We had booked the 7 am jeep tour which is the most popular thing to do in Sedona. We booked the most popular tour – the Broken Arrow!  Despite the early time, there were at least a couple dozen other people that had booked the same tour.  We were in a jeep with our tour guide, Gary, and a family from Cleveland!  The ride was great – and very bumpy! We were able to drive right up on some of the rocks and stopped a few times to get pictures of the wonderful scenery:









 



  

After the two hour tour we decided to stop for some breakfast.  We were starving by this point, but were glad that we waited to eat until after we were done with the jeep ride!   We stopped at the Orchard restaurant on the way back to our hotel.  After filling up on french toast and waffles we went back to the room to rest for a bit before continuing on with our day! I (Mike) fell asleep for a bit while Jenn worked on the blog. We got going again around 10:30. We took a semi guided audio tour around ‘the loop’ in Sedona to see various sights: 







 

Once we completed the loop it was lunchtime and we went back to the Cowboy Club since it was so good.  After finishing up lunch  we came back to the hotel and decided to take advantage of the pool and hot tub. We had been avoiding this because we didn’t want all the attention that comes along any time I go shirtless and show off my sculptured physique. We went anyway and within 20 minutes a group of people arrived and we couldn’t handle the attention and left.Unfortunately it was time to pack. We have been living out of the suitcases for more than a week, so it was a bit rough to reorganize and get everything to fit, while keeping the suitcases under the 50 pound weight limit.  We were trying to decide what to do about our last sunset and decided to just watch it from the balcony of our room. And suprisingly we ended up with some of our favorite pics:







After sunset we got ready for our last dinner. We had an 8:15 reservation at Troia’s, which is an Italian restaurant which got very good reviews on trip advisor. The experience was great. One of the owners was actually our waitress and the service and food were excellent. Thoroughly stuffed, we headed back to the hotel, did a little more packing, and went to sleep.  

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! 

We had originally planned on getting up early - really early.... like 5:00 am early for sunrise at the Grand Canyon.  Unfortunately (0r fortunately depending on which way you are looking at it), it was overcast when we looked out ... [Continue reading this entry]

Crappy internet connection right now - will add pictures and format the writing asap!!  Just wanted to get something out :)  This morning we got up at tramp stamp of dawn. Shortly before the asscrack. By that I mean 5:45. ... [Continue reading this entry]

We had planned on getting up for sunrise, but were so tired from the previous days hiking we decided ‘sleep in’ until a whopping 7 am.

 

We packed up our things, got one last look at the view from the ... [Continue reading this entry]

We were pretty tired so we decided to sleep in until 7:00 am..WOO-HOO. We got ready and strapped on our hiking boots, grabbed our hiking poles, and headed out with NO idea what we were in for.  We hopped on a ... [Continue reading this entry]

We had to get an early start as we had a reservation with Hertz for a 7am pickup. I had secretly hoped Jenn had rented a Lamborghini, but it ended up being a Pontiac G6 with a 4 banger and ... [Continue reading this entry]

And we're back! We woke up around 5:30 am (dang Columbus time) and laid around for a while. I eventually fell back asleep and Jenn was kind enough to make a beautiful entry to the blog. Once we got up, showered, and ... [Continue reading this entry]

We have a TON to write and pictures to post, but oddly there was a lack of internet connection in the desert?? 

Since we went to bed so early (around 11 pm Vegas time), we got up really early as well - at about 5 am!!!!  This gave us plenty of time to leisurely get ready and look at all of our ... [Continue reading this entry]