My husband Morris and I booked a trip to Sedona a while back, blithely assuming that our construction project would be done by now (it was supposed to start in early January, but with 18" of frost in the ground . . . ). Our excellent builders managed to work around our absence, though, so we came home to an insulated, dry-walled space despite being away. More on the space in the next post!
We arrived in Sedona late Tuesday afternoon and settled into the AirBnB we'd booked: a bedroom in a log home. The hosts run this particular location like an actual bed & breakfast, with us having access to a downstairs bedroom and exclusive use of the nearby bathroom, and with excellent breakfasts each morning. Plus snacks in our room, bottled water and iced tea, and a nice bottle of wine. And a hot tub. Bliss.
Inside Lower Antelope Canyon, in Page, Arizona
On Wednesday, we drove three hours north, skirting the edge of the Grand Canyon to get to to Page, Arizona, where we saw the dam that makes Lake Powell and grabbed lunch before joining our Navajo guide to visit Lower Antelope Canyon. It's a slot canyon that is absolutely gorgeous in all respects due to the workings of water and wind. And we have so many fantastic photos, and none of them completely do justice to the place.
We ended our trip with dinner at Criollo on San Francisco Street in Flagstaff: shrimp tacos for Morris, pork belly tacos for me. Super delicious, as they are part of the SLO movement: sustainable, local, and organic. The food was so so good.
A twisted juniper tree in a vortex area on Bell Rock.
Our Thursday was pretty evenly split between hiking (interspersed with meditation, tai chi, and qigong) the Bell Rock trail, where there are many energy vortices, and shopping in town. We love hiking out there, and I'm guessing we'd be far more outdoorsy if we lived there. Despite air temps in the 60s, it was sunny and warm enough to not need coats or even sweaters during our hike, so we upped our Vitamin D levels a bit while hiking and then while walking through town. Most of our time in town was us browsing through art galleries to see what we could see, think about pricing, and so forth. So. Much. Fun. And we finished the day in the hot tub, looking at the Milky Way and spotting the occasional shooting star.
Spotted on a t-shirt at the Artists Cooperative in Jerome, AZ.
On Friday, we went to Jerome for the day: a ghost town, a former copper mining town, now full of galleries and cute shops and restaurants and bars. We visited the Hill Top Deli (great sandwiches!) and saw lots of art, chatted with gallery owners, and I even bought a wee painting by Michele Cokl Naylor, which I will put in my studio this weekend. Until then, the painting is wrapped up.
Beautiful even in the rain.
Saturday was a rainy one, but still lovely. And Sunday was a full day of travel, between driving, flying, the time change, and the time zone change. And when we came home, we found a cat who was happy to have us home, a closer-to-done addition, and our very own bed.