Musings from the land of Flye: Southwest Travels Part Duex (2 of 2)

Friday 11/1 marked a new month and the beginning of an action packed adventure weekend! Tess and I had a late start to the day but we headed up to Jerome, AZ around 12:30pm so we arrived shortly before 3pm. We realized, upon arrival, that most of the shops closed around 5pm we busted arse through town to check out all the cute shops and galleries, of which there are many. Luckily we are power shoppers and not only did we get some great stuff, but we did almost all our shopping before the shops closed! We also had photo ops of the views and some unique things we saw about town (like a crumbling jail!) Once we checked in and got settled in the Connor Hotel, we headed up to the Asylum restaurant at The Grand Hotel at the very top of the hill (the entire town is built into a side of a mountain, about 5300 feet elevation and used to be a copper mining town).

The view from Jerome

The Connor Hotel - our crash pad

Selfie with Jerome behind us on the mountain

The Asylum was still gruesomely decorated for Halloween. It was definitely spooktastic. We got seated right away and enjoyed a two hour fancy meal with a side of awkward winking from the waiter. Hahaha!

We intended to maybe go listen to some live music but I was so overly full from dinner it was all I could do just to get my home. It was good, though, because Tess and I just sat and talked for hours. Finally I could not keep my eyes open a minute longer and around 11pm I was out like a light.

Saturday we packed up and had breakfast at the Mile High Café. It was really very good and we finished a bit of shopping we didn’t get to hit the day before. Around 11am or so, we headed out of town toward Sedona. The road out of town was so windy that it took us 30 minutes to go only 10 miles. AND come to find out, we were heading south (when we should have been heading north) so we had to turn around and go back through Jerome and down the mountain and finally headed toward Sedona. We got to Sedona around 1pm. The original plan was to have lunch there and head straight to the Grand Canyon but we were both enjoying Sedona so much that we decided to enjoy the afternoon there and hit the canyon in the morning so not to be rushed or miss out on anything. We spent a good chunk of the afternoon walking through an art fair where I proceeded to spend more money than I should have on gifts and goodies.

Beautiful red rocks everywhere

Just one of many amazing outcroppings in Sedona

We headed out of town around 4:30 or so and luckily made it through the curviest part of our drive before dark. We got to our hotel around 6:30 and had some grub at the hotel restaurant. Afterwards, we moved to the lounge area and ordered several rounds of wine (beer for Tessa) and taught two Australian couples how to play Yahtzee.

Yahtzee lessons proved fruitful as the blonde kicked all our arses

We had decided to watch the sun rise at the Grand Canyon so Sunday started for us at 5:05 AM and we were on the road by 5:20 toward the Canyon. We really had no idea where we were going but luckily we got to bypass the park entrance fee and we found a great view point right away. It was dark and FREEZING and we had to wait about an hour for the sun to fully rise but it was amazing and incredible. There ended up being a huge busload of other people there, but despite that, Tessa and I enjoyed the serenity of the moment.

Sunrise at the Grand Canyon

Sunkissed

amazing

The canyon in full morning light.

We found breakfast down the road at El Torvar Lodge which was quite lovely and then back to the hotel for a 2 hour nap (luckily we got a 1pm check out). Then up, shower and it was time for Tessa and I to part ways as she headed back down home to Phoenix and I headed northwest to Las Vegas.

On the way to Vegas, I did stop at the Hoover Dam and although I did not drive all the way through it, I’m glad I stopped. I also loved the viewpoint over Lake Mead. From there, it was only 30 minutes to Layne’s house…