Update, Part II

[cjsmith]

Saturday:

Back to the airport to pick up a rental car. There is something humorously stupid about a town that lives for tourism but can't rent anyone a car after 6pm on a Friday night. I had fun trying to figure out how to drive the thing. It's a full-size car, which means it's twice as big as anything I've driven before except a tank. The visibility was almost as bad as from a tank, too. And if I pushed the seat forward enough to reach anything, I almost had to sprain my shoulder to reach the seatbelt. I really wish I'd made the rental car reservation earlier. If I had, they might have had something more reasonable available.

At the hotel desk we picked up a "Red Rocks Pass," a $5 piece of paper that must be displayed in your car windshield if you park anywhere pretty. Thank goodness the hotel sold these; they are otherwise very hard to find. (Humorously stupid, again. I was beginning to realize that lovely as this area is, I will not need to come back.) Set out to go hiking.

Hiking didn't work well. Rob fell on his knee twice on Thursday, and it just wasn't up to any kind of hilly terrain. Plus it was hot. I was doing fine, but Rob was overheated, probably because he was working extra hard just to be careful of his knee. Oh well. That's a bit of a bummer... the area truly is beautiful. I would have loved to backpack here.

That left the other major local activity: shopping! In an area called "Tlaquepaque", which I privately pronounced Tinky-Pinky for lack of real knowledge, there are lots of very upscale arty shops. I had to get over a near heart attack when it became obvious that I had to drive my enormous rental car through an extremely narrow concrete arch doorway, over a surface that would anywhere else in the world be too lumpy to be a hiking trail, to get to the parking area. But the car did fit. And I loved browsing in the shops. Mmmm, opals. Mmmm, exotic hardwoods. Mmmm, beautiful bronze statues (among many not so beautiful). I took notes about everything I liked. There's no way I could afford them all, but it was obscurely comforting to have the notes. :-)

Then headed to "uptown" (meaning east) Sedona. (We are staying in "West Sedona", which is the town previously known as Grasshopper Flat. It's not far.) It is impossible to park in "uptown" Sedona, it's too far to walk there from West Sedona, and there's no public transportation. However, once you pass this challenge, the little shops are very fun to explore. I shortly made a rule: spend no money today, just remember the good stuff. I saw a lovely silver/opal bracelet that was very tempting.

Shops close around six (some earlier, a very few later). Apparently, the standard tourist is expected to spend many hours per night on fine dining. Rob doesn't do fancy food, so we asked a friendly proprietor what there is to do around here in the evening. He thought about it for a while and finally came up with... the movie theater! Fortunately I'd brought a fun board game... :-)

Sunday:

Checked in at the airport to make sure the plane had been refueled for the trip back. Services wouldn't be open by the time we were to leave. On the way down off the mesa, stopped at the "Airport Vortex". I had been insisting that I would not leave Sedona without basking in a vortex. There was a little scramble to get there. It was a nice peaceful spot marked by a rock cairn, a steady stream of tourists, and two kids selling handmade jewelry and pointing the way to the vortex for tips. I guess I'm not sensitive, or else whatever energy is usually there was kind of trampled by the humans present at the scene.

Went back to Tinky-Pinky (hey, the real pronunciation is almost as silly: "Tocky-Pocky") and bought an adorable carved dog I had fallen in love with. It's a couple of inches long, solid opal, with the cutest little hangdog spaniel face. Am still looking for exact information on how the stone has been treated for carvability. I am such a sucker! Then back uptown to grab a T-shirt -- the parking situation was abysmal, of course. (Boy did I regret renting a full-size car. I saw many places I could have put a Corolla.) Then out 89A for a scenic drive up Oak Creek Canyon. Lovely picnic lunch at an overlook about halfway between Sedona and Flagstaff.

By the time we got back into town, and had to swim upstream through "uptown" one more time just to reach the airport turnoff, we were ready to be outta there. The flight home was turbulent but pretty. Got vectored right THROUGH a restricted area (thanks, controllers! good shortcut!) and were rewarded with lovely views of Edwards AFB / Shuttle Landing Area from the air. Also saw Vandenberg and its mothballed fleet in the darkening twilight. Now I have a hankering to visit Vandenberg some time.

Shot the GPS approach due to low scud. Heckuva gusty crosswind on landing. A King Air just behind us got tossed around a surprising amount -- when the wind's messing with King Airs, you can imagine what it felt like in the Saratoga. :-) Wrapped it up and headed home. It's cold here. :-)

My kitties were VERY happy to see me. Ah, to be loved by a cat!