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| Beautiful Sedona |
Keith's friend Kerstin had a conference in Washington DC so she added an extra leg to join us in Arizona for a week. Kerstin arrived at 10pm on the Thursday night from Sweden so Keith picked her up at the airport and headed back to the house. Keith had an early meeting so it was quickly to bed.
Keith made it home by 11:30am from work on Friday. It was a quick change and pack before loading up the car. The first stop was lunch at
Mad Greens before driving to
Sedona, with Keith/Kerstin in the Audi and Shawna in the 4Runner. Our first hike of the weekend was around
Bell and Courthouse Rock - about 5 miles. Keith and Kerstin wrapped up the hike at the top of Bell Rock. We then headed to the
Hyatt to check in. The Hyatt is a vacation club and was well designed - it is a suite with a kitchen. After our showers we then drove to
Elote Café. Because the restaurant does not accept reservations, we had margaritas for an hour and a half before sitting down to a delicious dinner. We shared elote, fish tacos, tamales, and the braised beef special for our main course.
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| Bell and Courthouse Rock Hike |
On Saturday, we started with breakfast at the
Wildflower Bread Company, just across the parking lot of our hotel. Our first experience of the day was with
Pink Jeep Tours where we did the Broken Arrow / Scenic Rim Tour. The tour was awesome, taking you to the back country of the red rocks. We returned to Wildflower for lunch before driving to
Soldier Pass / Brin's Mesa for a beautiful 6 mile hike. After a shower at the hotel, we went to
Mariposa for dinner. The restaurant is a gorgeous location with amazing views - though we were there after sunset. As we waited for the table, we sipped on the spicy Mariposa cocktail. After sitting, we started with the atun (tuna poke) and grilled octopus for appetizers. For our main course we shared the bone-in ribeye, potato gratin, and cauliflower. Dessert was a delicious tres leches along with sorbet.
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| Pink Jeep Tour |
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| Soldier Pass / Brin's Mesa Hike |
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| Dinner at Mariposa |
On Sunday we ate at Wildflower (again!) and then drive up to Flagstaff. It took a while to find the
Humphreys Trail entrance, which was at the
Arizona Snow Bowl. The hike was up the mountain through gorgeous aspens. We then drove back to Flagstaff for lunch (at Wildflower!) and then popped into
REI. Kerstin then left us in the Audi to head to the Grand Canyon and Page while we went home, taking about 2.5 hours to make it back to the house. Kerstin will r
eturn to our house on Thursday after her week of exploring the nearby area.
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| Humphrey's Trail Hike |
