Wonderful Weekend...

It was all about jumping out of bed early and sneaking off to West Fork in Sedona this Saturday morning for one of my favorite hikes.

I suppose the word hike could be used very loosely here, as there is not too much actual intense hiking per se...but, more of an amazing little trail that winds all through one of the canyons in Oak Creek...which means, a lot of the trail is winding around the creek itself (and they say there's no water here!)













Sedona is one of the most amazing surprises in Arizona, as you are just about meandering along in a normalish Arizona valley, when you turn off on a bitty road...winding all around, until you finally come around a corner and ...

Boom!

All this amazing red everywhere...dotted with a crazy amount of McMansions, and quite a bit of Vortexes too (so I hear)...quite exclusive really. Let's face it, anywhere that McDonalds has to change their arch colors to turquoise just to open up shop is a place to be reckoned with.








It's really always been like this down there, but some of my favorite childhood memories took place at Slide Rock in Oak Creek...back when you could pull off the side of the road anywhere there was a bit of room for a car, and it was free? Now you have to pay, but I suppose if they actually use the money to help maintain the beauty of the canyon, it's worth it.

The water up this far was nice and cold...and while I only got my tosies wet instead of jumping in, it felt still felt lovely. Oh, this is a wonderful time of year in AZ...right before the heat makes you confine your major activity to the early morning or late evening (and so many variations in temperatures...considering it was snowing exactly one week ago and is now in the 80's) so many road trips to make, and so many places to be seen.




I was also told by a friend that this is the most romantic hike in Az. It's certainly my favorite, but I don't know how romantic it is...it's always a little hot, so I get a bit sweaty...and you're hiking, so it's a little tiring...and it was pointed out to me that there's about a thousand people (ok, I exaggerate...but it's a lot, believe me) milling about down in this canyon, so it may be a bit hard to be totally romantic.

It is always amazing and fun however!

After a few hours of this fun, it was back in the car and up the hill to Flagstaff...for a chai at Macys (of course...my most favoritest coffee house in the world, well...second to the one in Port Townsend and anyplace in Italy) a lovely lunch...and on to Bookmans. Where I got rid of the pile of books that was threatening to take over the downstairs...I love Bookmans and have about $200 credit at all times. I certainly couldn't walk away empty handed, so I loaded up a bag with some gifts for people, and got these 3 gems for myself. A book on the art of the advertising character (love these little guys) and 2 fun little recipe books. Yes, another thing I collect...I will have to dig out the ones I have and blog about them really quick (at least they're small and don't take up much room) Dina and I keep threatening to start making some of the um, more "interesting " meals that are listed in these books and blog about them...

What a lovely dinner party that would be...
nothing like loosing friends

How was your weekend?