Some pictures

Ok - here's some quick pictures from the Grand Canyon. This first one is of El Tovar - the 105 year old hotel that we stayed at. It's the one on the left nearest the canyon.




Here's another picture of it as we are walking in. The sun was just starting to set behind the hotel.

Here's a quick shot of the Grand Canyon. Have I mentioned how amazing it is?

And you have to be very careful to not fall off the edge. . . Rominal didn't get this message apparently.

But most importantly, always remember to bring your spirit fingers!

Home

Well, we are home. We had a wonderful time. Unfortunately, the realities of coming home from a vacation are now setting in. Mounds of laundry, piles of mail, bills to be paid, groceries to be bought, stupid cooking projects due for Bailey's class, etc. Honestly, she had to make a potato dish to take to school today. GRRRRR. That meant going to the store and buying things (not that I didn't have to do that anyway - it was just one more thing to do last night).

Since I didn't post any in the last couple of days, I'll fill you in very quickly. We drove up to the Grand Canyon on Friday. It was beautiful, amazing, and awe inspiring - I can't say enough about it. We left early Saturday morning to start the long drive back home. After about 10 hours of driving, we arrived in Amarillo and a 2 hour time difference - and not in our favor. I'm still feeling the loss of those 2 hours. Sunday, we got up and drove the rest of the way home. I'll be going through the pictures and I'll post some more later.

One funny thing, last night Rominal and I were joking about how in four consecutive nights we will have slept in four different beds - Scottsdale, Grand Canyon, Amarillo and finally our own bed. When Rominal came to bed last night I woke up a bit and started talking. Apparently I do this often and normally he just says, "uh huh" and other quieting noises and gets me to go back to sleep. However, last night I was so disoriented that I couldn't figure out where we were. I was asking him where he came from. When I am in my bed I can see two doors, one is the entry into our bedroom and the other is the door to our bathroom. I had to ask him where the bathroom was, because I honestly had no idea, and I needed to know. I guess when I asked him that he gave me a real answer and I woke up enough to remember where we were.

Sedona and Verde Canyon Railroad

Today was a full day. We got up early and drove to Sedona. We went straight to the Chapel of the Holy Cross, which was perched up on a mountain. It was a stunning sight.

Here's the church from the other side.

Here's the view from the chapel. I plan to buy this house at some point in my life - just to tear it down and put a more tasteful house in its place.

Then we had lunch at Heartline Cafe in Sedona. They had the BEST hummus ever! The chicken salad sandwiches were great too! And this cute guy was hanging around outside. And no, the bag in my hand is not a bag of chocolate chip cookies.

Then we drove to Clarkdale to ride the Verde Canyon Railroad. Here's Mom and me on the train. We are inside in our seats for this picture.

This is Rominal and Bailey outside in the viewing car.

Ok - this is a picture of a bald eagle sitting in her nest. It was pretty cool to see - later in the day we saw a young eagle flying around as well.

Here's the three of us back inside the train.

Here's one of the best parts of the train ride, especially for one of our passengers. It's a tunnel. Can you guess who enjoyed this the most?

I bet you guessed Bailey. You'd be wrong.

Travel

We are traveling this week. It's late here, so this will be a quick post just to update everyone with some pictures. Oh - where are we going? We are going to Scottsdale, Arizona then to the Grand Canyon. We are driving though, so we have a stop in El Paso, Texas on the way there, and a stop in Amarillo, Texas on the way back.

First of all - one of the highlights for Bailey when we check into a hotel is getting to ride on the luggage cart. This is in the hotel in El Paso. But you knew that, right? Don't you recognize it?

We met Rominal's nephew Keenon and his wife, April and their family for dinner. We went to a local Mexican restaurant and had a great time. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera at the restaurant, but here's a picture of Rominal and Keenon in our hotel room. It was great to see them.

On Sunday, we arrived in Scottsdale. Here's our view from our balcony.

We went for a walk around the grounds - and there is lots of wildlife here!

Some is scarier than others. . . It's a good thing Rominal is here to save us.

Here's one of the many pools here. We spent the afternoon here today. I know, it's rough, but someone has to do it!

On Monday, we went to the Heard Museum. It's a museum filled with Native American artifacts. We really enjoyed that.

After the museum, we went to one of Mom's favorite places, MacAlpine's soda shop. We had lunch there.

Then we had one of these . . . Actually, this is a picture of Bailey's root beer float. I forgot to take a picture of Mom's chocolate soda that we really went here for.

Today we went to Taliesin West, Frank Lloyd Wright's home and studio in Scottsdale. It was amazing and I'm so glad that we did the tour.

Here's Mom in front of a sculpture on the grounds.

And here's one of the three of us in front of a beautiful tree.

And finally, one more picture from today. This shows you that you just never know who you might run into while shopping in Scottsdale.