My fiancee and I did exactly that last week: we took the week-long school vacation and went to Sedona, Arizona (thanks to a gift from her aunt--use of her timeshare). It's the first major vacation we've taken together, it's the first vacation I've had in a very long time, and it was a vacation without either of the kids.*
Sedona is something of a tourist trap, but it's peaceful. Lots of restaurants, LOTS of art galleries, and some of the most beautiful red landscape I've ever seen. We spent time reading, catching up on season three of "Slings & Arrows," and going for little five-mile hikes. (I had planned to do some writing as well, but I couldn't get into the mindset for it--again.) It was a wonderful vacation, the first of what I hope will be many. You'll pardon me if I bring out a minature version of my slideshow.
This is Bell Rock. Obviously, it looks like a bell--but the round parts on each side quickly earned it the nickname "Muffin Mountain" from my fiancee and me. We walked around it on one of our hikes, shot a lot of pictures, and got our shoes dusty. Should anyone in the Arizona State Park Service ask, our initials are not written on this rock--that was done by two people with the same initials as us. Honest.
Courthouse Butte sits next to Bell Rock, and we actually walked around both of them on that first hike. (My fiancee got very tired of me referring to this as Ming's Palace, even though it looked like a very forbidding evil fortress.) You probably can't tell from the photo, but this thing is huge. And beautiful.
There's a chapel here--the Chapel of the Holy Cross--that's built right into the rock formation. Not a big place, but very elegant and serene. (No, this isn't a postcard--I took this picture.)
In the rock formation right behind the chapel is a bit that look's like an eagle's head. Nature has its way of being cool.
We also visited the nearby town of Jerome, which is an old mining town. Quite a few shops, lots of old buildings, and a "ghost town" which is really little more than a junkyard with an admission fee. The best part of that excursion, to be honest, was the Douglas House, a mansion of yesteryear converted into a museum of the town's mining history. (I like museums.) The relics of the town were fascinating, and I learned some stuff about rocks.
5.09 grams/centimeter3 -- The Bornite Density.
The art galleries were really eclectic and diverse. This gallery had all kinds of sculpture, including the Shiny Horse. Another had all kinds of stuff made of glass, some of which reminded us a lot of Chihuly's work.
All this natural beauty . . . and this dude's taking my picture. Go figure.It was a great vacation: peace and quiet, no work (no Internet at all, in fact, for a full week), some beautiful country, and a beautiful companion. I could get used to traveling after we get married.
