Grand Canyon and our Arizona adventures

    John and Cindy picked us up and laughed at the (stick) lizards we had glued to our front door.  Reference my story on 6-1-2008 (The Twisted Ironic Tale of the American Stick Lizard).  

     We flew into Las Vegas and spent a few hours there checking out the casinos before heading out to Flagstaff, Arizona.  It was cool crossing over the Hoover Dam, we stopped for a few minutes to view this impressive manmade creation that we seen many times in movies.  Just as in the movies there is a line painted in the road separating Nevada and Arizona at least there was at the time.

      After the first night in our hotel we got up early for the drive to Grand Canyon.  Flagstaff is in the northern part of the state and it gets cold there, in fact it was snowing when we left the hotel.  As we left for Grand Canyon, skiers from our hotel were loading skis for a day in the mountains.  We purchased a National Park pass, which covered our car for the whole week at any National Park and it only cost $25, great deal!  Grand Canyon was awesome, we hiked about an hour down the trail, took many pictures.  It's hard to describe and pictures don't do it justice.  We would have loved to hike all the way down may be next time.  John had me hold on to him as he leaned over the edge to get a better picture, kind of made me nervous.  I took some pictures of the stick lizards I brought for my wine label (Stick Lizard Chianti). Great Day! How could we top this tomorrow?

     The next morning we toured the Petrified Forest and the Painted Desert.  Our first impression of the Petrified Forest was not so good but it got better quickly.  The Painted Desert was incredible with beautiful multi colored landscape.  We had bought hats at Grand Canyon, I had a Crocodile Dundee type hat so when we stopped for lunch I asked the ranger if we would have any trouble getting back in, he said "No problem, with that hat, I'll remember you".  We also ask if we could walk down into the desert, he said "Absolutely, some people camp overnight".  This was exciting so after lunch we went back to the Painted Desert and hike around the rest of the day.  Another wonderful day!

     The next day we drove to Sedona but on the way we happened upon Slide Rock park which was a great side trip.  There was a river going thru the park spilling over these huge flat rocks.  The water was crystal clear and cold.  It was great fun to hop from rock to rock and dangle you feet in the cool water.  As we drove from Flagstaff to Sedona the temperature warmed almost 30 degrees in just an hour drive.

     Sedona was beautiful; the red rocks almost seemed unreal. We spent time hiking up the nearest mountain, which was exhilarating. The town of Sedona

was unique and fun plus it was surrounded by the amazing red rock mountain landscape.  The trolley tour guide pointed out the peaks of two of the hills that looked like Snoopy and Lucy from the Peanuts cartoon.  We also learned about the many celebrities that owned property in Sedona.  This is a town I would love to visit again and spend more time there.

     Our last night in Flagstaff we had a great dining experience at the Matterhorn restaurant nearby, this place was almost empty, which is usually not a good sign but that was so not true. John and I ordered cioppino, I'm not sure what Mimi and Cindy ordered, all I remember is that we were all pleased with our dinner.  The more surprising thing was that the owner came out to talk to us, spending at least a half hour telling us about his background as we peppered him with many questions.  He was originally from Austria but left at age 15 to join the merchant marines which is where he honed his cooking skills.  He travelled around the world and worked in many places.  He married a girl from Brentwood, Missouri that he met when he was working for Breckenridge Hotel in St. Louis.  Although he travelled extensively his favorite place and where he planned to retire to was Lake of the Ozarks, Mo.  What a great dinner and interesting guy.  This was a perfect way to end a great vacation in Arizona.