Sedona

I had friends visit.

The other night, after working until a little after six (which was leaving early for me) I got to go to the airport to pick up my friend (and college roommate), Sara. We had not seen each other since a meeting in Chicago SIX YEARS ago.

Holy crap.

If that was not exciting enough, on the way home, we stopped and picked up my other college roommate and dear friend, Rachel. Plus her babies. She used to live here in Phoenix but moved back to Minnesota, so I had not seen her in a year.

I could have peed with excitement.

There are pictures that I took of the babies and a group shot of all of us, but I am not going to post those right now.

What I am going to share are pictures from our trip to Sedona.

Sedona is a few hours (depending on who is driving) north and west of Phoenix. It is wonderful. Jeremiah and I have gone up several times for hiking. This time we decided to try a Pink Jeep Tour. By this time, we'd already dropped Rachel and the kids off at her sister's house, so it was just the three of us.

Let me preface this, picture stealers, with a warning. Take my pictures? I will kick your butt. Or I will have Jeremiah do it. Or it's an empty threat but please don't take my pictures. It's rude.

 We stopped at a vista point. The sun was rising. I was driving. I seriously drove the whole time. This is impressive NOT because I dislike driving or because I am bad at it or anything like that. It is impressive because mountain driving scares the shit out of me.

 When we got out at the point, it was cold. For people that live in a city where the current temperature is about 85 and has not been below that since maybe March, it was much appreciated.  There was a better picture but somebody had trouble with auto-focus. Jeremiah.

Here is the view where you first see the mountains. You come around a corner and BOOM! gorgeous views everywhere. Seriously, it actually takes my breath away.

Here's the worst part of driving somewhere spectacular. You do not get to stare and marvel. So instead I was like, "Somebody say ooh and ahh! Say it now!" But not everyone was quite as expressive as I tend to be, and there was a lot of quiet marveling. I hope.

 We signed a form in case of accidental death and I whispered to Jeremiah: Oh, my god. Accidental death? What the hell?!

But then I signed and got our discounted price and then I mentally played the game "Who do I NOT want on the Jeep with me?" There were a couple of high maintenance soccer moms that I heard discussing soccer mom-ish stuff that I would have been cool with riding separate from and also a woman who, in my opinion, was treating her child horribly. And giving him juice. Because that is what you want on a two hour trip into the wild. A kid that needs to pee.

Even though I played silently and by myself, as we headed towards our Jeep, Jeremiah whispered that he had known I was playing. He even knew who I did not want on the Jeep. He's a sneaky guy, that Jeremiah.

 I took pictures of Sara, even though she said she hates having her picture taken and did I NOT remember that from college? I am going to say that no. I do not remember. And just keep taking pictures. So there, Sara.

 Way to photo bomb, Jeremiah.

 The guide posed us in these shots. I kind of dig them.

 Oh, and you know the mistletoe that people hang during the holidays? Apparently it is invasive and kills other plants by mimicking the host plant and then strangling it. So the above plants are BOTH mistletoe, but one was hanging on one tree (evergreen, I think) and the other mistletoe was hanging on something else. Strangling and killing both trees. Think about that the next time you kiss someone underneath it.

 Okay. So in this picture, there is a white line on the butte hundreds of feet up in the air. People actually BIKE THE LINE. I am not kidding. Watch this video.



Then from the biker's POV:


At first I was like, I don't think the guy is wearing a helmet. But in reality, if you fall, it probably does not matter if you are wearing one or not. You are already throwing caution to the wind.

 I went down the rest of this hill that does not look like a hill on my butt. Everyone was like, "You can do it." and they gave me much more credit than I deserved. They obviously do not know my gene pool (coughfallinginparkinglotinFrancecough) or that I recently got stuck in my mini fridge. So I slid down on my ass.

 And then we looked over the edge and I did not get very close. But it was close enough.

 We got to do some steep stuff in the Jeep.

 On the way out of Sedona we stopped to see the church in the side of the mountain. I forget what it is called and I am tired of recounting the trip so I am not looking it up. It is impressive and I like it mucho. It was designed by one of Frank Lloyd Wright's students, apparently.

 Our last stop before our pie stop was Montezuma's Castle, which is also built into the mountain but in this instance, hundreds of years ago. I kind of wanted to go in it. But you can't. Suck.

A creek goes right by the castle, which is part of the reason they built it there, according to the signs I read along the path.

That was our trip to Sedona. I had a great time and it was fun getting away from the city. Only at one point did I lose my cool driving, and that was because as the driver, NO ONE was helping me navigate the tourist laden streets of Sedona while I was going through NINE roundabouts (which I kicked ass at, by the way). Ahem.

I just told Jeremiah that I wrote this part and he was all, "That's real nice. All you remember is the bad stuff." I prefer to look at it as a celebration of me surviving mountain driving and only getting ticked ONE time. Baby steps. Because I mentioned all the wonderful things that happened on the trip and only one minor icky thing.

Oh, yeah. We stopped for pie at a place voted one of the top ten in the country - a little hole in the wall place about thirty minutes outside of Phoenix. It was pretty darn good. I wanted rhubarb but sadly it was not in the cards. So instead we got coconut cream, chocolate, and peach. Yum.

I also want to add this - it was incredible to see friends from so long ago. It was almost as if no time had passed at all. We were giggling and remembering the funny/stupid stuff we'd done ten years ago. And making new memories. Love it.

Wakey, Wakey Part 3 - The Final Episode

The final part of the trip lands us in Petrified National Forest. All my normal exaggerations aside, this place was incredible. Humbling.  I might have gushed a bit. Jeremiah's response to my gushing? "Dirt is 225 million years old. Do you feel humbled by dirt?" I think he was just cranky because he had been driving so long.

We started at the park entrance and then headed through, following the map and narrow road for the twenty-eight (?) mile route. At first we didn't see much petrification of wood around us and I was getting miffed. We only had an hour before the park closed and I was feeling discouraged. The painted mountains were gorgeous, though. So some perks.

In the above picture, I'm not sure if there was a fire and the stuff on the rocks was ashy stuff or if it was mossy stuff. Didn't really seem to be an environment conducive to moss.

This was totally intimidating to drive next to. Especially when you could see huge boulders that had already slid down the side.

Finally on the side of the road, I saw some petrified wood. I screeched to Jeremiah that he should "Stop the damn car!" and I hopped out and took some pictures.

All around the chunks of petrified wood are little (pocket-sized) pieces. I have never in my life wanted to steal as badly as I did at these moments. I'd get back in the car and Jeremiah would say, "Did you put some in your pocket?" All accusingly like. My response was "Do I look happy like I just stole something? No. I do not." Jeremiah's nature/park motto is "Leave only footprints, take only memories." which is posted at Effie Yeaw near where he lived in California. So he is my annoying conscience. Not that I would really steal, but holy crap it is tempting to take a piece of 225 million year old history.

The pieces don't look huge, but they are:

A little background for you:

We stopped at this tourist shop to get a postcard for my grandma. I get her a postcard on every trip I take.

We spent the night in a shady hotel. I actually saw a man smoking a non-plant-based material in a pipe outside while I was waiting for Jeremiah to get our room. I have never hopped over into a driver's seat so fast in my life. Seriously, I could have won a medal. I wanted to be able to leave the scene if I needed to.

I should mention that the dogs did fine on the travels, but it would have been much easier to travel without them, especially Spike. In the car, fine. In the hotel, barking. Not so great. Although, I don't think that that was the biggest concern with regards to our hotel.

The next day we headed for home, this time through Flag.

We are celebrating our 100 year birthday this year in Arizona.

Liars. Big fat ugly liars. I didn't even believe them on the way home. I scoffed at their signs.

I might have screamed a bit on the way home. Mountain driving is a beast. You are right next to the rail, where you can see little crosses put up in memory of those who did not make it back down the mountain.

Plus, you can see the semis heading north UP the mountain. One wrong move, and you are toast. I hope those drivers think about that. My life is in their hands.

When they redid the highway, they decorated/arranged the rocks to make it look pretty.

Here's our sign celebrating Arizona's birthday. Palm trees replace the mountains from the earlier shot.

Home sweet home.

Anyone else take any trips lately?

p.s. Dairy Queen story - On the way home, we stopped at a DQ that we visit nearly every time we head up to Flag/Sedona/Jerome/Wherever. The guy asked us if we wanted dog dishes. They were free, he told us. Not knowing exactly what a dog dish was, we said yes anyway. Mostly because I am in love with free stuff. He gave each of the dogs their own little dish of ice cream. Good Lord, those were some happy dogs. Spike was like the owl in the Tootsie Roll commercial, where the owl says "How many licks to the center of a tootsie roll pop? One, two, three!" and then the owl bites the pop. Spike took about three licks and then just ate the whole ice cream at once. Atticus, on the other hand, did delicate little licks while sitting on my lap. He kept looking up at me and his little whiskers and chin had ice cream all over. Took him a good five minutes. So cute.

Wakey Wakey, Part Two

I told Jeremiah that I was trapped. I think that freaked him out, but that was how I felt. I just needed to go somewhere. I was tired of being here in Phoenix. I needed to move.

So a few weeks ago, we started planning. Time-wise, Jeremiah would only be able to take a few days off. Plus, the dogs. And cats. We decided the dogs would come with us and the cats would stay home. It took forever, but we also decided (the morning of) that we would be heading towards Petrified Forest National Park. I'd wanted to go since I drove past it with my dad nearly six years ago. Plus, that way we could stop in Winslow, Arizona.

We woke up on Tuesday, packed a suitcase (plus books, maps, guides, gps, etc.), packed supplies for the dogs, and took off to the gas station. Holy crap, gas got expensive, didn't it?

Anyway, being that my car is still new to me, I wasn't keen on the idea of Jeremiah driving. So I drove. About ninety miles. Then we hit the hills/mountains and I was screaming and white-knuckling the steering wheel and my eyes were closed and Jeremiah was all, "Um, maybe it's time I drive. You know, for the safety of the four lives in this car." So I pulled over at a small gas station and he took over.

For the rest of the trip.

Be careful what you wish for, babe.

Anyway, here we go on our picture journey.

First, we decided that if the dogs were comfortable, we probably would be happier, too. So we packed the dog bed that they love. 

Atticus is wearing his harness. I LOVE this harness, as it is breathable and does not cause him to lose fur or get red, irritated skin.

Seeing snow in AZ is pretty much the highlight of any trip. I get way too excited.

 So this sign just ticks me off. I kept saying to Jeremiah, "Any minute now, we're going to see one of those beasts - an elk or moose or whatever that is!!!" and guess what, Friends? We never did. Not one. Except at one point I think I might have seen one. It shall now be infamously referred to as "The Elk Shrub". And stop laughing Jeremiah, it totally could have been an elk. You don't know.

 Friends, I know for a fact that I've posted pictures of the tall grass like this before. But it seriously is so cool and I just love it.

Jeremiah: This is one long straight-ass road. Emily: Yes it is! I am going to take another picture!

 And then we reached a point where it was flat, with orange ground and blue sky. It was kind of awesome.

 The scene in the backseat looked like this. How can you not MELT when you see that little face?

Way out in the middle of nowhere, we passed this building. I guessed prison, because what a perfect place for criminals. If you escape, you're screwed. There's nothing else out here. I guessed right. I always do.

 We reached Winslow, Arizona. We stopped and GPS'ed the exact corner of Jackson Browne. I am not at all ashamed to share that we totally touristed it up.

"Standing on the corner of Winslow, Arizona..."

I was all, "Let's stay there on the way back!"

 Okay. We passed this HUGE HUGE HUGE power plant. I think it was nuclear. I am not sure. I CAN tell you with certainty that I prayed for it not to explode the entire time it was in sight. It was way intimidating. I didn't care for it.

But I did love the tacky dinosaurs and made Jeremiah slow way down. The street next to this was named Bloody Bucket Street, which I am pretty sure is the most awesome street name EVER.

We could have stayed here, too. But we did not. I am glad. When we stopped for gas next door on the way home I saw drunks stumbling back from the bar. Not my scene.

This is my scene. And I have a DQ story for the next part of this picture trip.

 We are going to end here for today. Mostly because I am tired of explaining each picture. And a little because PNF is so cool it doesn't deserve to be with my pictures of tacky touristy stuff. Although I can't promise that some of that won't sneak into the next post.