Last Day: Sedona to Phoenix

Today we repacked the car for the last time, with our suitcases nearest the door for a change! 

We drove south towards Phoenix, passing for the last time through the red rocks of Sedona, with a passing glimpse at a church built into the rock and a brief pause to admire the saguaro cactus.

Red rock, Sedona

Saguaro cactus outside Sedona

Church built into the rock

We decided that a coffee break would be in order and Bob pulled off at Red Rock Cafe.  It looked rather suspect from the outside, but inside turned out to be a dieter's nightmare.  Pies, pies, pies!   And what pies.  Some confections saturated in syrup and others piled inches high with whipped cream!   Of course we couldn't resist!  Bob had chocolate cream pie, Peter had sugar-free apple pie and I had mixed berry crumble pie.  Mary had a cookie.    The place was really busy and many people were tucking into hearty lunches at 11.45 in the morning.  

We admired the saloon, with its ancient refrigerator and some of the buildings outside.  

Red Rock Cafe facilities?

Also selling "Whoop Ass Sauce"

Pie anyone?

More pies

Good news! 

The saloon at Red Rock

Ancient refrigerator

So full of pie we set off for the airport.  Bob and Mary had a long drive ahead of them to New Mexico so it was a swift farewell and hugs all round outside the terminal and then we whiled away the time until our flight.   We found wifi - that kept us busy for a while - then a fruitless search for a reasonably priced aftershave for Rupert....sorry son!  Then a very late lunch in an Italian restaurant in the airport which actually had a woodfired oven.  We had very good spaghetti and meatballs! 

Eventually we boarded the plane.  Poor Peter,  the window seat next to him was occupied by a very, very large lady who encroached on his seat space and wriggled all night long.  She must have been so uncomfortable!   She did not leave her seat for the entire 9.5hr flight.  We don't know how she managed!  Best not think about it! 

So Phoenix to Heathrow, collect the hire car and head back to Norwich.  Rupert had kindly put the heating on for us, so it was a cosy homecoming...

Goodbye for now!  See you again in January when we go for the inaugural gala for Peter and the other visiting professors at College Station, Texas. 

Day 14: Sedona

Today was a hot, lazy day.  We had scrambled eggs for breakfast cooked by Bob with rolls from the Italian meal last night and croissants delivered yesterday by the landlady.  We ate outside on the patio, eventually going out at about 10.30.

The breezeway, Lantern Light Inn

We visited the Sedona Historical Museum based in the one room house of an early settler which expanded over time when their orchards matured and bore fruit.  There were many interesting photographs, mementoes and reminiscences and a host of old machinery outside - including an old apple grading machine.   There was also plenty to remind us that Sedona was extensively used to shoot cowboy films in the 1950s.  

An old fireman!

Mega frying pan

Historic museum, Sedona

Prickly pear

Kitchen

Kitchen

We explored a shopping centre called Tlaquepaque with many boutiques laid out like a Mexican village with archways and piazzas with fountains.  Well, the website describes it as Mexican inspired, but we thought it looked Italian! Peter and I took advantage of a shady seat for a while before we met up again with Bob and Mary, then it was off to Staples for large elastic bands (much larger than we can easily get in the UK) and to Safeway for lunch provisions.

Lunch on the patio was followed by reading, siesta, crosswords and more reading and, eventually, drinking! 

The restaurant tonight was the Heartline Cafe just up the road from the B&B.  The whole road between here and Uptown Sedona is lined with restaurants! 

Day 13: Walnut Canyon and Sedona

We just got to breakfast after a couple of bus loads of students who had cleaned out the breakfast goodies!  Almost!   After a few moments, the staff recovered and we had fresh scrambled eggs!   We are becoming intolerant of anything that minimises our comfort! 

First stop today was Safeway!   Almost as exciting as Grand Canyon!   Well, not really, but I do love an American supermarket.   I had bought a book on South Western cooking the day before and so stocked up on chiles and chilli powers of various sorts.  

Next stop was Walnut Canyon, once lived in by the Sinagua, a native peoples who lived in dwellings cut into the rock of this deep, forested canyon and somehow managed to eke out a living with very little water. Sin - without, Agua - water, see?! 

Walnut Canyon

Cliff homes in Walnut Canyon

Before the Sinagua other peoples had built pit houses. There was a good centre with explanations and a walk round with views into the canyon and of some of the dwellings.   Also, excellent labels giving the names and uses of some of the plants we have seen, so I have been able to go back and put in some names and appear terribly erudite! 

Typical vegetation

Cliffrose: purshia stansburiana

Banana Yucca

An infinite number of grasses 

Blue Grama: Couteloua gracilis

From Walnut Canyon we drove south through Oak Creek Canyon, a deep, wooded canyon with a creek running through approached from above down a winding road.   

Oak Creek Canyon, the road down

All green and shady!   And obviously a magnet for Sunday trippers.  We managed to find a picnic table at a stopping place and enjoyed a lunch of stuff from the ice box and fresh goodies picked up by Peter and Bob in Safeway while Mary and I tracked down chili powder.   Spelling of chilli is all over the place...English, American, Mexican...which version to use???

Kitchen

Then on to our B&B in Sedona for the next two nights.  Well!   A little oasis of calm and comfort.  What a perfect end to the holiday!   Bob is so pleased with himself for having found it on the internet!   It's called The Lantern Light Inn.  It's just off highway 89A and the owners are lovely.  

We have two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a large lounge, dining area, kitchen and private garden.  Peter is taking a nap indoors while Bob, Mary and I enjoy the garden.   

Living room

Garden

Garden

 We have booked tonight at Dahl and Diluca , an Italian restaurant just up the road, which the owner says is one of the best restaurants in Sedona!  We are treating Bob and Mary tonight to say thank you to them for organising this holiday, to Bob for doing all the driving (not that we didn't all offer, he just wouldn't let go of the wheel) and to celebrate the anniversary of their engagement.  You're never too old to be sentimental and romantic! 

Just back from the restaurant.  It turned out to be a really good meal. Very friendly staff and attentive waiters.   We are all feeling rather full!  Bob finished his meal with a Limoncello...what can you expect from a man who drinks Dr. Pepper!!!

We are planning the last day of the holiday.  Tomorrow we'll spend some time in Sedona - which looks like the Arizona equivalent of Islington or Hampstead!   There's a museum and an art gallery and much retail therapy opportunity.   We had hoped to meet up with old friends Van and Kathy in Phoenix on Tuesday, but Van is recovering from knee surgery, so sadly that won't happen.   Get well soon Van! 

Day 12: Grand Canyon, South Rim

Would you believe it!  The couple who we met at the Buffalo Sage B&B (near Bryce Canyon), who also turned up at Kaibab Lodge (near Grand Canyon North Rim) were at breakfast at our motel in Flagstaff this morning!   I told him to stop following us around and he was slightly taken aback until he realised I was joking!   Sometimes British humour doesn't translate well! 

Little Colorado Canyon

 This morning we drove from Flagstaff to Grand Canyon, South Rim, stopping off at an Native American run park where we walked to the edge of the Little Colorado Canyon.   Bob and Mary had been here before, many years ago and said the railings were new!  Thank goodness they were installed!   The path led to a steep drop down into the canyon.  Shame the sun was not quite in the right place for photographs because the plunge down to the river was quite something!    Mary posed, hanging over the abyss!  There were stalls of Native American art/artifacts and I bought a hematite necklace and a pair of earrings.  

Mary, showing no fear! 

Bob and Mary must have been to Grand Canyon several times but not for a few years and they were staggered by the development that has taken place.  We approached from the east and our first stop was Desert View.   The whole area has been landscaped, with new paths, facilities and car parks.  Despite it being towards the end of the season, it was busy.  However, it is incredibly well done, well laid out and sympathetically built to blend into the environment - and despite the packed car park, the paths keep people separated and circulating.   Anyway, we got our first view of the canyon from the south and photographs just can't convey the immensity of the scene, the variety of colours in the layers of rock and the general sense of amazement at the landscape.  I probably needed a better camera to capture the depth of field, or something.  The distances are huge and there appears to be a blue haze hanging over canyon. My resident scientist tells me it is the gases coming off all the pine trees that form fine particles in the atmosphere...  

By the way, if you double click on the pictures you get a slide show in which the pictures are bigger and better!

Grand Canyon

The Colorado River 

Just take a few more steps back! 

We had a picnic lunch further along the rim and then Bob dropped the three of us off at Pipe Creek Vista and we walked along the rim to Mather Point and the new visitor centre complex.  The walk was not as dramatic as it sounds as a paved path takes you all the way, but there are plenty of places where the fool hardy can approach the edge and some people were having their photographs taken in poses that made you want to rush up and ask about their life insurance! 

It was a good walk though, about a l.5 miles, with wonderful views of the canyon and plenty of interesting plants to look at.  

Another canyon view

and another! 

Cliffrose: purshia stansburiana

Bark

Looks like some sort of daisy?

Delicate! 

Fern Bush: chamaebaliaria millefolium

Bright Angel Canyon

Bright Angel Canyon

We met up with Bob at an excellent bookshop, grabbed a cup of real coffee (not the usual weak variety) and then drove back to Flagstaff, stopping to admire the light dusting of snow on the top of Humphrey's Peak, the highest mountain in Arizona (12,633 feet).  

Humphrey's Peak

 In Flagstaff we found the Lowell Observatory but changed our plans about the evening programme when we realised that it involved standing outside for some time (and it gets really cold at night) and we refused to pay $9 each to be frozen!  Instead we browsed the bookshop before retreating and Bob and Mary picked up a really good book on the chemistry of the elements for their eldest grandson, Caleb.   

Back at the motel we went to Bob and Mary's room for a G&T and a rummage through the food box for nibbles before walking next door to Denny's for a quick meal.  

PS We decided that if we return to Grand Canyon before we are too old (!) we'll take a mule ride and a ride in a small plane.  Watch this space! 

Day 11: Grand Canyon North Rim to Flagstaff

Brrr!  A chilly start to the day with some snow on the ground!  What a contrast! Bob went out early and got ice from the garage opposite the lodge, which seemed a bit superfluous! 

Our cabin and Mary's car with a light dusting of snow! 

We drove north, then east, then south and crossed the Colorado river by the Navajo Bridge at Marble Canyon where there was a good little visitor centre with some interesting memorial plaques. 

The Colorado River near Marble Canyon
and the Navajo Bridge

Memorial plaque to Mormon ferry operator and his wives...

We stopped at Cameron Trading Post - a huge emporium filled with Indian crafts.  At the back we found a grocery store where we purchased a modest sandwich lunch, which we had in the car. 

Food shopping

Then on to an excellent visitor centre at Wupatki where we learned about the Pueblo Indians who built a small village against the rock with ceremonial circles for meetings.  We drove past Sunset Crater and admired the black lava flows now forever still and fields of a'a - which is apparently the name for a particular type of extremely jagged lava.  

Wupatki Pueblo ruins

Our arrival in Flagstaff in the late afternoon was something of a culture shock after the quiet of the deserts and the canyons...Flagstaff is big, much bigger than Bob and Mary remembered, and has a complicated road system which we engaged with at rush hour!   Our standard Quality Inn motel rooms are a great contrast to the cabins at Kaibab Lodge and we have the usual two queen sized beds in the room.  We have exchanged quirky for conventional!  We went to an Italian restaurant, the Olive Garden, part of a chain that Bob and Mary like.  It was packed and we waited 45 minutes for our table, and were then disconcerted to find a large birthday party on one side and some very noisy and wriggly children behind us.  We were all a bit tired and grouchy, but fortunately the noisy ones left and our food, when it arrived was good! 

Day 10: Grand Canyon North Rim

After breakfast the rain set in and we drove under dark skies back to Grand Canyon, wearing layers and coats for the first time.  We whiled away time in the  lounge vainly seeking wi-fi connections, booked for dinner at a ridiculously early hour (4.45) in the Lodge dining room, went up to the camp ground general store, where there was wi-fi and whiled away more time on coffee, emails, and then a sandwich lunch.  

Emails at the General Store

After lunch Mary and Bob took the car down to the Visitor Centre and Peter and I walked the mile back down through the woods.   More sitting around and relaxing before we went to hear a park ranger talk about the geology of Grand Canyon.   Russell was working as a ranger while finishing his MSc in geology and deciding what to do next.  He was excellent!  He was slightly put off by the obvious expertise of Peter and Bob, not that they interrupted him in any way, but occasionally they exchanged comments.  Russell checked them out afterwards and was obviously relieved to know that he had done well.  

Russell Rosenberg

Before we had supper we went on a short walk to an overlook near the Lodge.  It was cantilevered out over space.  There were railings to hang on to, but Peter took one look at the drop and stayed well back!  Mary and I were more adventurous! 

Ruth with Mary watching her back! 

Looking down Grand Canyon at dusk

Supper was very good!  Bob and I had prime rib – delicious chunks of roast beef cooked to order, Peter had a steak and Mary had Buffalo.  We had a bottle of Argentinian Malbec, which following the swift scotch in the car, left us feeling mellow.  

Lodge Dining Room, Grand Canyon North Rim

Another great sky as bad weather rolled in.

Sunset, Grand Canyon North Rim

Bob was abstemious and drove us back to the cabins, where we turned in at 6.0 pm!   What a ridiculous time to be thinking about going to bed.  I did the blog, downloaded and sorted photographs and vainly tried to find out how i-photo works.  Peter dragged the only chair under the only light and did a crossword.  We managed to keep ourselves amused until about 9.0 pm and gave up and went to bed.