As we wound our way down the canyon to get here, it was nearly impossible to keep from tearing up. This might very well be the most beautiful place on Earth. And after several days on the road, it was like finding an oasis. Here was a place where we could slow down again. We had planned to spend a single evening in Sedona and then move on. Within half an hour of getting here, we had decided to stay three nights.
The sights are incredible, and even with the tourists and the jeeps and the shuttles and the timeshare hucksters, there's still an unshakable sense of quiet here. It's as if no amount of noise you could possibly make could ever be bigger than the land itself.
On our first day here, we ate at a cozy little hillside Italian place called The Hideaway. The guy at our hotel said it's a place where locals actually go. We split an enormous salad, and got introduced to Oak Creek Brewery's wares. Oak Creek Brewery is the local brewery, and we've both been very impressed by what we've sampled. While we were eating our salad, we noticed a pizza someone else had ordered and made a note to come back for dinner. And, after wandering town a bit, then making use of the whirlpool at the hotel, we were ready for pizza. It was quite good, and because there was some kind of holdup in the kitchen, the waiter comped our drinks for us. After dinner, we got back in the whirlpool until they kicked us out at pool closing time.
The next day we needed to move hotels, as the our original hotel didn't have vacancies for Saturday. We found one of those timeshare type places that gave us Saturday and Sunday night for $100 total if we would just sit through one of their presentations. For that price in Sedona, we were willing to give up 90 minutes of our time on Sunday morning. Check-in time for the hotel wasn't until 4:00, though, so we decided to go on one of the many, many Jeep tours running around Sedona. We finally settled on one that would take us on a scenic route, high above Sedona, then onto a rough-and-tumble 4-wheeling route just west of town. The views were incredible, but it was actually quite difficult to take pictures. We were bounced around a lot, even on the scenic route. We got jostled so badly that Kurt's knees ached by the end of the tour. It was well worth the time, though. Absolutely fantastic ride.
Wiped out from our ride, we decided to have an easy night of it. We picked up some take-out Chinese and took it back to our (new) room. We opened a bottle of the wine we had gotten at The Cave Winery in Missouri and had dinner and wine out on our balcony. Below us, in the valley, we listened to the ceremony and festivities of a wedding. Weddings are so nice and calming when you're not in them. We hope they are as happy as we are, and we suspect they regret their decision to hire a cheesy DJ. I know we regret their decision to hire a cheesy DJ!
This morning, we went on our timeshare tour. For a timeshare deal, I have to say, it doesn't seem too awful. I've been on these presentations before, and this one really does seem like a far better deal than any of the others I've seen. Nevertheless, we're not going to buy a timeshare. The woman who was our "hostess" was extremely cool and very, very good at her job, so I felt bad for her, since I know they work on commission, but there was just no way we were going to buy a timeshare.
After the presentation, we toured around Tlaquepaque, which is basically an outdoor art mall. It's a quaint little "village" with shops, and the shops are mostly jewelry, painting, and sculpture of various kinds. Lots of interesting stuff, but it tired us out, so we came back to the room. Currently Kurt is taking a nap, and I'm at the little "food court" type place next to our hotel. I wanted to try the wild prickly pear ice cream to see if it was as good as it sounded.
It is.
- Colette
(pictures later when I get a chance)
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