Sedona - Day by Day ... Overall, a decent trip, a few ups and downs.
We got in fairly late on Saturday and I drove the 100 miles or so to Sedona after dark mostly and in the rain. We got settled in our "suite", which was adequate, really an efficiency with a small kitchen area, which came in handy. It had a small but nice balcony, but a lot of steps over which to lug one large suitcase. The rental was a basic Chevy Trailblazer, which used to be a larger "SUV" but now is pretty small, but it was adequate.
Day 2 - Exploration of the resort, and we had a "time share" presentation that got us a $250 gift card to Dahl and DiLuca restaurant, which was worth it I suppose. We hiked a bit around Cathedral Rock but a storm was coming in. It was the day after our wedding anniversary, so we had dinner at D&D, the prix fix menu, which ran a bit over $250 before tip. My wife wanted to return, and we did, the next Friday. We spent some time in Sedona. Think of Gatlinburg, it was below expectations for me, a ton of T shirt shops and whatnot, a lot of "crystal" shops where you buy a rock that brings you ... something. We stopped at some "Mexican" place on the strip for beer and chips, $7.50 for chips and queso and salsa. Huh.
Day 3 - We drove up Oak Creek Canyon Road towards Flagstaff, interesting, stopped at an overlook where some folks were hawking Indian jewelry, my wife spotted a bracelot she liked. OK. Then drove to Meteor Crater, which was $50 to enter with AAA discount. The visitor center was fairly interesting I thought. Worth it? Maybe not. A storm was coming in and we had to go back inside after viewing the crater. Drove back down I-17. We were told this was the "monsoon season", and it kind of was, we hit heavy rain on the way back, almost to the point of having to pull the car off the highway. Flagstaff is at 7,000 feet elevation, the main RR goes through there. I turned off where a sign said "Historic Flagstaff" but that was the last sign of anything "historic". There are a lot of Ponderosa pines south of Flagstaff.
Day 4 - I had arranged a tour of Antelope Canyon up near Page. That was a long day, it's a drive. The guide was good, the canyon is "nice", quite short really which was fine. The Navajo tour guide took the photos with his camera to save time and then Air Dropped them to our group. We also walked to Horseshoe Bend and the dam, which is interesting for me. Had an OK lunch in Page. Long ride back down I-17. That general area is basically desert..
Day 5 - I had signed us up for a wine tour, that was a total bust, waste of money. Not only were the wines mediocre, the tasting fees bordered on outrageous to me, and the tour itself was not good at all. Most of the grapes come from way south and the wines were just OK and priced at $30+. Nyet. The tour group got a bit drunk and rowdy, which made it less fun as well.
Day 6 - Back to Dahl, had another nice meal, I had some seafood concoction and a nice bottle of Brunello, my wife had Lamb which was quite good. Very good service, but got pricey. I had schedule a star gazing tour that got cancelled, which was just as well. Most evenings big storm clouds blew in and it rained quite a bit, but not much during the day.
Day 7 - We drove to Jerome, AZ, up in the mountains, an historic copper mining town. We visited their state historic museum which was quite interesting and then walked around the town, very artsy stuff, more like what I thought Sedona would be. Bought some things for the wife. Had a nice lunch. We talked about returning the next day but didn't.
Day 8 - Visited Red Rock Canyon State Park and hiked a bit. It was not hot except in the sun the whole time, my wife started showing some signs of heat stress on our hike, so we stopped in the shade to cool off and hydrate, she was fine. Had an OK lunch at "Cafe Jose" which had high marks and was ... OK. At left overs for dinner.
Got up early to get back to PHX for flight, which was uneventful, a luggage issue that was a bit annoyng but OK. Overall, as I said, decent trip, I don't think either of us are angling to go back. Next month is our trip to Istanbul.
