Can you believe we have been traveling for a month now? The good news is we have our answer down for when someone says "where are you from" and "when are you heading home". They were initially tough questions to answer. Some people look at us with envy, others like we are crazy.
Mile 4906: Leave Scottsdale
We are up early for absolutely no reason and hit the road. Sedona is our next stop and it's only a 2 hour ride. Since our trip is about the journey, not the destination, who knows how long it will really take.
James remembers (as we pass Frank Lloyd Wright Drive) that Taliesin West is here in Scottsdale. For those of you who do not know who Frank Lloyd Wright (FLW) is, take a minute to Google him. He is an amazing architect originally from WI. He designed buildings all over the world. For East Coasters, have you heard of Falling Waters? That's another FLW.
He designed homes that incorporated nature. His home was in Wisconsin... it's name: Taliesin. James and I went to Taliesin and took a tour- it's in Spring Green- only 15 minutes from where our house was located. We learned about Taliesin West on our tour of the WI Taliesin.
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| Taliesin West- Frank Lloyd Wright's winter home |
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| More Taliesin West- He built this because his wife was not fond of Wisconsin winters |
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| Even more Taliesin West- There is a weird story about stealing Frank Lloyd Wright's body after he died. You'll have to Google it. |
We opted out of the 90 minute tour as we learned all about FLW in Wisconsin.
Back on the road... Mile 5000. Woohoo!
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| Mile 5000 view |
Before long we are getting close to Sedona, AZ. You can tell by all of the red rocks. That's their signature landscape.
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| I'm not sure why they call it a forest... |
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| Don't worry- these are just statues of javelinas |
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| Self Portrait in front of cool red rocks |
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| Another red rock... they say something about the magnetic properties, spiritual something... they were really pretty |
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| Breathtaking scenery. The colors were brilliant. |
James was excited to find a place to fish, so we check out the local hot spot... and hot spot it was. There were lots of people picnicking and playing in the stream. James opts to wait until later to fish, but we decided to take advantage of the scenery and have a picnic.
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| Picnic Lunch |
We get to our hotel 3 hours before check in. I didn't think they would be ready for us, but they had a room! We are staying at Amara Resort and Spa. It's a great price, and has fantastic facilities. We are impressed by the level of service- and with a down to earth attitude. It's not a common combination.
After changing, we hit the beautiful infinity salt water pool that overlooks the red rocks.
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| In-pool self portrait |
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| View from lounge chair |
There was a small unidentified creek behind the hotel, so James went to check it out... he was still looking for trout. He saw lots of fish, but all the kids splashing around scared them off. There is so little water here, that tons of people flock to picnic, swim and fish. It's not always a complimentary combination.
We take the hotel's free shuttle service to dinner. We went to a place called Elote. It is one of the top restaurants in Sedona according to just about everybody we talked to. They don't take reservations so we knew there could be a long wait.
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| They had a nice waiting area outside. They provided free popcorn so we didn't pass out from starvation |
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| Finally, we got a table! |
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| It was worth the wait. Green chili carnitas with corn fritters |
After dinner, we headed back to the hotel. James is planning to fish early tomorrow morning (hopefully before the kids wake up and hit the river) so we opt to have an easy night.
Tomorrow: Grand Canyon
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