"Home is where I wanna be, but I guess I'm already there."
Not just a line from a Talking Heads song, but an excellent summary of my situation. Tomorrow - or, more accurately, later today, I will get around to a New Year's Eve post in earnest. But for now, a short calendar/list that will do for a summary of my trip:
24th: Race Santa to AZ. Ho ho ho! According to our pilot, Santa was spotted entering northeastern Canada about 30 minutes before we landed. We win - suck it, Santa! Our plane is 40 mins. early, but gateless - we arrive at the terminal on time, having sat out in no man's land for a while. Santa chortled, I'm sure, but we still made it from the terminal to the rental car center and then on to my folks' house by 11, then stayed up until something like 12:40 AZ time (1:40 Eastern).
25th: Ho ho ho! My dad blares Christmas tunes and knocks on doors at 6:55 a.m. (25 mins. later than promised, btw). My brother seemed to like the ukulele we gave him - he gave hubby and I a new roof. On a school in Kenya, but still - it was a really cool (and big-ticket) kind of gift! My mom gave me a ring of hers I've always coveted (making me very happy), and the Ocean's 11-12-13 movies (eye candy - woot!) Dad guessed golf balls correctly when he got them from Keith, but I cleverly wrapped two boxes together, thereby outfoxing his amazing Karmak routine. In fact, everyone seemed to like their presents. And then my parents had another 4 people in for dinner, for a total of 11 at dinner. It was excellent company and excellent food and wine, and an all-round good time.
26th: Mom, hubby, girls and I went to Tempe to tour Arizona State University. S is a junior, after all, and needs to start looking at colleges. She loved the campus, but not its distance from home. We enjoyed excellent food at My Big Fat Greek Restaurant, then headed back to Gold Canyon (east of Phoenix), where my folks lived. The five of us set out to hike the trail and see the nearby petroglyphs/hieroglyphs, but we'd been misled as to the trail distance - my mom's friends told her "half a mile" for something that's at least 2-1/2 miles. Uphill. On loose rocks for at least 1/3 of it. We could've made it to the drawings before dark, but not back again. Perhaps another trip. (Alas, the exertion proved deleterious to my health - stupid RA - but the Humira injection on Monday seems to have leveled things back off.)
27th: Keith packed his presents and his cat and went home. Hubby and I packed our overnight bags and headed to Sedona (which was lovely). We visited Montezuma's Castle (a cliff-side dwelling of the Sinagua people from, like, 1000-1300 A.D.), where I purchased my National Park Service Passport and entered my first official stamp. We drove on to Sedona, where we had champagne and chocolate-covered strawberries waiting for us in our cabin (what a lovely surprise upgrade that was!) at L'Auberge de Sedona, then walked around part of town. We enjoyed the complimentary wine and cheese reception, dressed for dinner and enjoyed a wonderful meal at the 4-diamond restaurant there. As we signed for our meal, the waitress said she'd call and order a fire built in our cabin. Seriously - the guy was just leaving when we got there, and there was a roaring blaze going. Boy, do I love a wood-burning fireplace.
28th: I got up early to go watch the duck feeding, which is done every morning at 8 a.m. It was something like 23 degrees Fahrenheit at that point. (!) Then I enjoyed coffee and scones at the lodge, and took a cup of amazing cocoa to go. I did not avail myself of the open-air shower under the circumstances, but quite enjoyed doing the crossword puzzle by the fire I built. We enjoyed our tour of the rest of Sedona, then drove north a bit so we could come back at the town as if coming from Flagstaff - wonderful views of the partially snow-covered red rocks - and then we stayed on 89A South to Cottonwood (maybe we did that town wrong, but there was nothing to see there), then stopped at Tuzigoot (another Sinagua ruin, another stamp for my NPS Passport), then through Jerome (a fascinating artists' colony now that used to be a mining town and, between then and now, a ghost town). Jerome would have been awesome to stop at, but my left knee was shot, so we settled for a drive-through. (It's precariously perched on - or almost off - the side of a hill.)
Then on to Prescott, where we enjoyed the artists' galleries we got to before they closed, and then a spectacular tactical blunder: We stayed on 89A South, which switchbacks its way up and down mountains (we were above 6000 feet at several point, and past 7000 feet at least once) towards Phoenix (sort of). It took at least an hour longer than a quick dash to I-17 would have done, but hey - we kinda saw a javelina crossing the road at the outer edge of our headlights, so that was kinda cool. Still doesn't justify that trip. I'm just sayin'. Then we stopped in Scottsdale for dinner, then back to my folks house, where we arrived just before 10 p.m., tired but happy.
29th: Hubby and Dad went to a bike shop and deli. Mom and the girls and I went to an outdoor shopping mall (complete with a Macy's and Dillard's), only nobody felt like shopping, so we went to Queen Creek Olive Mill for lunch (and olives - I bought a jar of the Oregano Feta ones and another of the Maytag Blue Cheese ones - yum!)
30th: We flew home again. Left over half an hour late and still made it in on time due to an amazing tail wind. To quote a different song: "Gee but it's great to be back home. Home is where I wanna be." (Sing it, Simon & Garfunkel!)
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Not just a line from a Talking Heads song, but an excellent summary of my situation. Tomorrow - or, more accurately, later today, I will get around to a New Year's Eve post in earnest. But for now, a short calendar/list that will do for a summary of my trip:
24th: Race Santa to AZ. Ho ho ho! According to our pilot, Santa was spotted entering northeastern Canada about 30 minutes before we landed. We win - suck it, Santa! Our plane is 40 mins. early, but gateless - we arrive at the terminal on time, having sat out in no man's land for a while. Santa chortled, I'm sure, but we still made it from the terminal to the rental car center and then on to my folks' house by 11, then stayed up until something like 12:40 AZ time (1:40 Eastern).
25th: Ho ho ho! My dad blares Christmas tunes and knocks on doors at 6:55 a.m. (25 mins. later than promised, btw). My brother seemed to like the ukulele we gave him - he gave hubby and I a new roof. On a school in Kenya, but still - it was a really cool (and big-ticket) kind of gift! My mom gave me a ring of hers I've always coveted (making me very happy), and the Ocean's 11-12-13 movies (eye candy - woot!) Dad guessed golf balls correctly when he got them from Keith, but I cleverly wrapped two boxes together, thereby outfoxing his amazing Karmak routine. In fact, everyone seemed to like their presents. And then my parents had another 4 people in for dinner, for a total of 11 at dinner. It was excellent company and excellent food and wine, and an all-round good time.
26th: Mom, hubby, girls and I went to Tempe to tour Arizona State University. S is a junior, after all, and needs to start looking at colleges. She loved the campus, but not its distance from home. We enjoyed excellent food at My Big Fat Greek Restaurant, then headed back to Gold Canyon (east of Phoenix), where my folks lived. The five of us set out to hike the trail and see the nearby petroglyphs/hieroglyphs, but we'd been misled as to the trail distance - my mom's friends told her "half a mile" for something that's at least 2-1/2 miles. Uphill. On loose rocks for at least 1/3 of it. We could've made it to the drawings before dark, but not back again. Perhaps another trip. (Alas, the exertion proved deleterious to my health - stupid RA - but the Humira injection on Monday seems to have leveled things back off.)
27th: Keith packed his presents and his cat and went home. Hubby and I packed our overnight bags and headed to Sedona (which was lovely). We visited Montezuma's Castle (a cliff-side dwelling of the Sinagua people from, like, 1000-1300 A.D.), where I purchased my National Park Service Passport and entered my first official stamp. We drove on to Sedona, where we had champagne and chocolate-covered strawberries waiting for us in our cabin (what a lovely surprise upgrade that was!) at L'Auberge de Sedona, then walked around part of town. We enjoyed the complimentary wine and cheese reception, dressed for dinner and enjoyed a wonderful meal at the 4-diamond restaurant there. As we signed for our meal, the waitress said she'd call and order a fire built in our cabin. Seriously - the guy was just leaving when we got there, and there was a roaring blaze going. Boy, do I love a wood-burning fireplace.
28th: I got up early to go watch the duck feeding, which is done every morning at 8 a.m. It was something like 23 degrees Fahrenheit at that point. (!) Then I enjoyed coffee and scones at the lodge, and took a cup of amazing cocoa to go. I did not avail myself of the open-air shower under the circumstances, but quite enjoyed doing the crossword puzzle by the fire I built. We enjoyed our tour of the rest of Sedona, then drove north a bit so we could come back at the town as if coming from Flagstaff - wonderful views of the partially snow-covered red rocks - and then we stayed on 89A South to Cottonwood (maybe we did that town wrong, but there was nothing to see there), then stopped at Tuzigoot (another Sinagua ruin, another stamp for my NPS Passport), then through Jerome (a fascinating artists' colony now that used to be a mining town and, between then and now, a ghost town). Jerome would have been awesome to stop at, but my left knee was shot, so we settled for a drive-through. (It's precariously perched on - or almost off - the side of a hill.)
Then on to Prescott, where we enjoyed the artists' galleries we got to before they closed, and then a spectacular tactical blunder: We stayed on 89A South, which switchbacks its way up and down mountains (we were above 6000 feet at several point, and past 7000 feet at least once) towards Phoenix (sort of). It took at least an hour longer than a quick dash to I-17 would have done, but hey - we kinda saw a javelina crossing the road at the outer edge of our headlights, so that was kinda cool. Still doesn't justify that trip. I'm just sayin'. Then we stopped in Scottsdale for dinner, then back to my folks house, where we arrived just before 10 p.m., tired but happy.
29th: Hubby and Dad went to a bike shop and deli. Mom and the girls and I went to an outdoor shopping mall (complete with a Macy's and Dillard's), only nobody felt like shopping, so we went to Queen Creek Olive Mill for lunch (and olives - I bought a jar of the Oregano Feta ones and another of the Maytag Blue Cheese ones - yum!)
30th: We flew home again. Left over half an hour late and still made it in on time due to an amazing tail wind. To quote a different song: "Gee but it's great to be back home. Home is where I wanna be." (Sing it, Simon & Garfunkel!)
