Thursday - April 28

We headed to the airport at 7:45 for our 9am flight on America West. At the airport we met our friends Dan and Assana and Joe and Lisa at Señor Jalapeño for a tasty breakfast burrito. We flew to Phoenix on a jet and then had a turbo-prop flight to Flagstaff. Budget brought our Expedition right up to the terminal and we all piled in for the short drive to our hotel, The Little America, Flagstaff. We checked in and took our stuff to our rooms, then headed to the hotel's cafe for lunch. While we were sitting there it started to snow! We had assumed that winter would be over by the end of April...

We decided to check out historic downtown Flagstaff, so we drove over, parked and walked around for a bit. We had some coffee and went into an art gallery, all with fluffy white flakes coming down around us. Afterwards we went back to the hotel and hung out in Dan and Assana's room for a while. Around 7pm we all piled back into the Bus/Expedition and headed back downtown for dinner. The first Italian place we tried had no bar, so we went across the street to Pesto Brothers where we had a tasty dinner with a fun waiter who knew an awful lot about wine.

Friday - April 29

Friday morning we woke up early and walked down to the hotel restaurant for breakfast. Assana accidentally ordered 'The Rustler' which turned out to be biscuits and gravy, ack! Fortunately they were quick to bring her some replacement pancakes. The road to the Grand Canyon had quite a bit of snow on the ground, which made for interesting driving. Once we descended a bit things got a bit easier and the temperature warmed up. At the South Entrance to the Grand Canyon we headed into the small airport and found Papillon Helicopters. When we checked in we were told that there was a weather hold and that they would let us know in an hour. We had booked an all day tour where we would get to hike around in an Indian reservation, but we were also informed that the weather was changeable, and that it was possible that we could be stranded overnight in the canyon and might have to camp. We decided that was not such a great option, so we switched to a short half hour trip, and Joe and Lisa decided to join the rest of us.

We had a bit of time to kill, so we drove down to the Grand Canyon Village and walked a bit along the Rim Trail. Then we headed back to the airport and boarded our helicopter. We flew out across the canyon from the south rim to the north rim. It was a great trip and gave us a really nice overview of the scale of the canyon. After the flight we drove to the tram station and caught a bus to the Kaibab trailhead. We sorted out our backpacks and then headed down into the canyon. The trail was quite steep, with lots of switchbacks cut into the canyon face. The weather had improved dramatically and we had mostly blue skies and some puffy white clouds. The temperature was also just right for hiking, not to cold, not too warm. Along the way we saw some great vistas and amazing rock formations. After about 45 minutes we decided to turn around with Dan and Assana; Dan had to run ahead to tell Joe and Lisa, they had zoomed ahead without warning...

We climbed back to the rim, enjoying the views, then took the shuttle to Yaki Point which has 270 degrees of view of the canyon. We took some pictures for a while and sat and enjoyed the view. The third shuttle bus that came through had Joe and Lisa on it, so we boarded and headed back to the car. We packed things up and started our hour and a half journey back to Flagstaff. Back at the hotel Dan and Assana joined us in the hot tub for a bit for a nice soak. It was welcome after all of the hiking earlier in the day. A little while later we all headed into town for dinner at San Felipe's Cantina. It was a fun mexican place with delicious mango marguerites. Back at the hotel we watched some more of Catch Me If You Can, then went to sleep.

Saturday - April 30

We got a little bit later start at 8:45, headed over to Starbucks for some coffee, and then made the 25 mile drive over to Sedona. It was a scenic drive on a twisty little road. Once there we stopped at The Sedona Bread Company for breakfast. It seemed that the staff might have been out late the night before as they had some trouble with Randy's order. At the counter, after ordering a cranberry bagel, Rick asked if Randy was going to have French toast, to which Randy replied no. Later, at the table, French toast showed up. Randy explained that he had ordered a cranberry bagel so the waiter went off to find one. He came back with a cranberry muffin. Randy explained that he had ordered a cranberry bagel, so the waiter went off again after leaving the muffin behind. A few minutes later he returned with a cranberry scone and a cranberry cookie. Randy once again explained that he had ordered a cranberry "b-a-g-e-l", which caused the waiter to ask another waiter if they had such a thing. Since the other waiter said yes, he left the two new cranberry items and went off again. He finally returned with the bagel, along with the manager who refunded the money for the French toast! We all had a great laugh at the whole process; who knew we'd get a show with breakfast?

After finishing we drove to a shoe store to get Rick some new hiking shoes as his had been very uncomfortable the previous day. He was very happy with the new ones! We started off at the end of "gallery row" for a day of art browsing and shopping. We spent the next 3 hours looking through a number of galleries, and ended up purchasing several pieces for our new San Francisco house. We were really happy with the finds and can't wait for them to arrive back home. At around 2pm we decided it was lunch time, so we went to the Bice Cafe for a tasty meal on the patio overlooking Sedonas magnificent scenery. After lunch we drove South out of town looking for someplace where we could do a little hiking. We ended up stopping at Bell Rock since it was relatively close to the road and looked like a fun little hike. As we parked we noticed signs everywhere stating that you needed a Red Rock Pass to park, but we had no idea where to find one. We decided to risk it and started hiking, then Rick asked someone on the trail about them. She turned out to be a ranger and said we'd be ok for an hour or so, and, worst case, the fine was the same as the pass, five dollars.

We hiked pretty far up the hill, both of us jumping from rock to rock and having a great time. As we got to the top we had a fantastic sunny view out across the valley, with wonderful reds and tans lining the hillsides. We waved at Assana below, she had not climbed very far since she did not have hiking shoes. Once we climbed back down we drove back towards town. Along the way we saw an art fair at the Raddisson hotel, so we decided to stop. We walked around for about half an hour; there we about 50 artists with booths in a couple of large tents. It was fun, but we didn't see anything else to buy. Back in Sedona we made another stop, at Tlaquepaque, another gallery complex. It's designed to resemble a small Italian village and looked really cute. We looked around for a bit, then decided to head back to Flagstaff.

After a soak in the hot tub, we went in to town to the Beaver Street Brewery. It was a pretty lively place and we all had a great time laughing and joking over dinner. It was a great way to spend the last night of the trip.

Sunday - May 1

At 8am we all headed back to Starbucks, then parked the truck near the railroad tracks to watch for trains. Flagstaff is located right on a very major freight line, with lots of trains going by and blasting their horns. Randy wanted to watch some and get some pictures, so we hung out for about 20 minutes. We ended up seeing three long trains go by, which was lots of fun.

Then it was back to the hotel to pack up, and then a short drive to the airport for our flights home.

It had been a great trip, lots of amazing scenery, fun shopping, and great company. We want to thank Dan and Assana and Joe and Lisa for joining us!

Favorite Phrases:

Trucker Phones
Fedona Arizona
Content Free Conversation™
Six Flagstaff
Three bloody geeks in the back seat
Glen Ellen Degeneres
Enchanted Forest

Best Quotes:

"You don't want Assana licking your head?"
"It's so stiff there's nothing I could do to it."
"I grew into my adult ass."
"What are you going to ride at 4am in Berlin? Let me tell you..."