Sedona? OK. Sedona.

October 7, 2008 - Tuesday


Well. So our "schedule" is already getting "flexible" and we're actually a couple of days ahead of what we had had in mind. We spent the nite near the Grand Canyon and intended to see the sunrise (about 6AM - and we were told to be there at least an hour before - to really see the effects) - but when I woke up at 5AM - after the day we'd had before, I just decided to turn off the alarm clock before it even went off -and let us sleep in. So we missed sunrise, but we got up at around 8, packed, had our breakfast, checked out, and headed back to the Canyon - to get the 2nd half of the photos already in the posted set. Just beautiful.


Soooo. Ahead of schedule. What now? We had consciously decided NOT to go to Sedona, Arizona - despite some recommendations - because we'd gotten impressions (from "Penn & Teller" - among others) that it was just a collection of New Age kooks: Astrology, Pyramids, Astral projections, and such. But we had a few more of the people we encountered - recommend it. And it was pretty-much on our route. And we were a couple of days ahead of schedule. Sooo... to Sedona we went. Beautiful drive in: winding treed road - and rather amazing when we arrived. It is a town of 20,000 people - overrun with tourists like us. It is stunningly beautiful - built in *among* the kinds of formations that we had been seeing in National Parks (see the opening photo - taken on the "main drag" of town - with the mountains showing thru the clear Arizona air - in all directions. That photo was taken by a very-helpful Irish policeman. Yes. Irish. Here in Arizona.) Here are other views taken on the main "tourist trap" strip:

And, by the way, on the drive in, we encountered a man in a long, bright-purple robe, with a long beard (the man had a beard, not the robe had a beard) - in the middle of a traffic circle - so there ARE kooks there.

But we found our hotel and I promptly settled in for a nap: I felt distinctly dizzy and light-headed. Perhaps because of the higher altitudes of the last few days - and perhaps because of the winding roads. Whatever the reason, the afternoon was spent sleeping - for me, then dinner (where we found out that Sedona pretty-much shuts down after 8PM) - then trying to catch up on the BLOG - and sleep.