Trip Days Five and Six: Up the Highway to Sedona!

Our fifth day in Arizona was Easter Sunday.

Thanks to the foresight and sharing of my cousins, Max got to participate in a little cousins Easter Egg Hunt. So much fun!

Organizing in the hallway.

Hunting in the hotel!

Opening eggs and sharing the spoils. 

Thanks to Molly and Karen for organizing! So fun for Max to meet and play with his West Coast cousins.


After saying our good-byes, we headed north out of Phoenix toward Sedona. Over the next several days, we reenacted a trip that I took in one day with my grandfather back in 2004. Grandad Gatton and I did the trip in about 18 hours. Paul and I chose to take a little longer. :-)

Stop 1: Montezuma's Castle 
This stop is just outside of Sedona, the ancient cliff dwellings of the Sinagua. It's one of many national parks in the area, and Max was able to get his Junior Park Ranger badge here.

About as good as it gets when trying to get Max to pose with me. 

Lizard - one of the things on Max's ranger park list.

Cutest tourist ever. 

Swearing in of the ranger!

Official.

Stop 2: Sedona
After our visit here, we headed over to Sedona. And Paul discovered that I was right: a person cannot oversell Sedona.

Here's the view from the terrace at our motel, the Sky Ranch Lodge.

Yep, cannot over sell that. Our motel was at the top of a hill by the airport. While the place itself was a little "old school," its convenience, views and affordability (lotta overpriced resorts in Sedona). We enjoyed the surroundings, and then we went in town to the aritists' village, Tlaquepaque, for an Easter supper.

Touring the gardens at the motel.

Just hard not to want to stay there!

Spaghetti for Easter dinner. Must be Grandpa Joe's influence. Yum! 

On the morning of day six, we spent some time touring some of the rocks and features of Sedona before heading up to the Grand Canyon.

Near to our motel/the airport is a "vortex" area by Overlook Point, a very hikeable rock formation. We decided to go for it, hiking, energy vortex, and all.

Deciding on a path.

Buns on the move.

Preparing to summit!

Morning in the valley.

Twisted tree - sight of vortex.

Thumbs up, ready to hike!

Paul and Max are the orange dots in the middle of the picture. After I climbed to the top,
those two made their ascent.

Selfie at the top. Note the cars behind my shoulder below for height.

View from the top.

Enjoying being taller than "everyone".

Little explorer.

Contemplating.

Before heading up to Williams, AZ, we stopped down at the Chapel of the Holy Cross, a beautiful church just south of Sedona itself.

Random giant mansion just down the hill from the chapel. Uhm, I guess I'd take it. 

I will cut off this entry here. The rest of the day includes the Grand Canyon. We took a few pictures there. :-)
Can you tell we get pretty excited when we do new stuff? Ha.