Yeah, it's been awhile since the last post. Sorry, but we've been a little preoccupied because WE'RE HAVING A BABY! I'm sure that most of you already knew that (assuming you follow us on Facebook and whatever), but there it is. He (yes, it's a boy!) will be arriving in early July and we're super excited and not freaking out at all. Ok, maybe I'm freaking out a bit. But that's normal, right?
Anyway, enough about that (for now). We're coming at you with a new vacation post! We wanted to go for a nice, relaxing weekend away before baby comes, so we decided to head west yet again and spend a few days in Sedona. So yes, this will be another vacation post - scrolling through and only looking at the pictures is totally acceptable.
We left on a Thursday after work, flying from IND to PHX. The nice thing about flying west is that, with a flight time of just over three hours, we arrived barely after the time we left. We picked up our rental car (Nissan Altima this time around - sorry Kia Optima) and headed out for some dinner. Another nice thing about traveling west?
In-N-Out Burger for dinner! There was one close to the airport, so we grabbed a few burgers and hit the road to Sedona. It's about a two-hour drive from Phoenix, so we didn't end up getting to the hotel, the
Hyatt Residence Club at Piñon Pointe, until around 10:00pm, or 1:00am EST... we were pretty tired to say the least.
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| Our trip-whip |
Benefit #3 of going west: jet lag! So getting up in good time on Friday wasn't hard at all. We took our time getting ready, had a nice breakfast at
Creekside, and then headed up to the Grand Canyon! As you may remember from our
last post, we're trying to hit all the National Parks together. So why not head up to the Grand Canyon for a day when we're so close anyway? Plus we still have the annual parks pass that we purchased in October, so up we went! The South Rim is set up really nicely with a ton of parking at the visitor center and then free buses that run all around the park. This helps keep the roads from getting too congested and is nice for visitors so they don't have to constantly worry about driving and parking. We took the buses along the rim, hiked between a bunch of the overlooks, and even got a quick lunch at the General Store in Grand Canyon Village. We spent most of the day there and ended up leaving around 6pm for Flagstaff.
We had basically come through Flagstaff on the way up, so we figured it would be a good place to get some food on the way back to Sedona. Dinner at
Lumberyard Brewing Company really hit the spot after a long day of driving and hiking. We stuffed our faces, had a few beers (ok I had a few, not Leslie obviously), and then headed back down to Sedona. We got in late but only had to stop suddenly to avoid hitting elk once, so it really could have been worse.
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| Pork Belly Breakfast for me - two eggs over easy, cheesy corn cakes, coleslaw, apple sauce, glazed pork belly |
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| Lemon Ricotta French Toast for Leslie - sourdough bread, battered with sweet milk, cinnamon, vanilla and Grand Marnier, lemon-ricotta cheese, powdered sugar, butter and maple syrup |
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| GC Visitor Center |
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| Sleepy elk |
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| Our little baby's first National Park! |
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| Dinner that night - pulled pork and hot link sausage combo |
Saturday was to be our more leisurely day. Not that we were doing a lot anyway (for us at least), but we really took it easy this day. We started off by sleeping in quite a bit and then eventually working our way to the nearby
Wildflower Bread Company for a late breakfast (ok, more of a brunch actually). From there we took some time to wander around the shops and galleries of Uptown Sedona. We didn't end up with much in the way of souvenirs this time around - all we brought home from Sedona was a little jar of
prickly pear jam. After all the walking and browsing we headed back to the hotel and decided to try out the pool. The hotel is built on an incline and they wisely decided to put the pool pretty high on the hill, so the view from the pool deck is a panorama of red rock cliffs and the rest of Sedona - not bad at all. We got some sun, took a dip, and took it easy.
After some time soaking it up, we got changed and headed south to the
Hilton for a spa session! Sedona is advertised as a getaway spot with relaxing resorts and tons of spas, so we figured we'd take advantage of that and try something new (for me at least). Leslie isn't much for massages and stuff like that, but she does like pedicures. So yes, tandem pedicures for the happy couple. We got a nice "Spa" pedicure, which meant they rubbed all kinds of fancy whatnot on our legs and feet and everything. It was pretty relaxing except for when she got some little Dremel tool out and started grinding bits off my feet. But overall it wasn't bad. And I am glad that we just went to a resort to do all that, not one of the weird independent spas that offer all kinds of crunchy crap to go with it - palm readings, aura photography, chakra adjustments, and I dunno, probably something with magic beans, special rocks, and seaweed that prevents cancer. We're here to relax, not absorb the vortex or whatever.
Next on the agenda was dinner at
The Hudson. I like to schedule a nice dinner for the last night of a trip. This wasn't our last night, but it was the last night in Sedona, so good enough. It was a really cool place with a great menu, good drinks, and a beautiful view. We had a lovely dinner and it was a great way to end last full day in Sedona.
We started Sunday off a little earlier since we needed to check out by 10am, so no sleeping in until 9:00 and having brunch at 10:30 like the day before. We packed up and then picked up breakfast from a little doughnut shop called
Sedonuts, because how can you not go to a place with a name like that? From there we headed to
Red Rock State Park to do a bit of hiking. It was a surprisingly nice state park with a cool little visitor center and some nice trails. We hiked a bit then headed back through Sedona where we ended up checking out a little shopping center we hadn't really planned on visiting. It was all very fancy with stores selling art, antiques, and other things we can't afford. But we did stick around long enough to get lunch at the
Oak Creek Brewing Co. located inside. Then it was back on the road and on to Phoenix (ok, but not before a stop at
Walter's Ice Cream & Hot Dogs for a quick dessert and a few stops at some outlooks / trailheads).
A quick two-hour drive got us to Phoenix around 4pm. Once checked into the hotel we took some time to relax, take showers, watch Iron Chef America, and eat our cookies (best part of staying at a Doubletree). We eventually left to return our rental car (goodbye little Nissan!) and head to dinner at
Mother Bunch Brewing. We opted to go non-traditional for dinner and split two apps: the Smoked Wings and the MB Beer Mac Trio. And wow, we left there so full and so happy! I also had a sampling of many of their beverages and I was quite pleased with what I drank.
And just like that, vacation was pretty much over. The next day was just the hotel breakfast, shuttle to the airport, and an uneventful flight back to Indy... where we were greeted by snow. Do you want us to leave and never come back, Indiana? Then get your weather figured out!
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| Best name ever |
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| The visitor center had a bunch of hummingbird feeders and they were quite well used |
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| Look, if you had one trail, one hike, to seize everything you ever wanted. One moment. Would you hike it or just let it slip? |
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| MB Ale Mac, Spicy Sriracha Tri-Tip Mac, and Bleu Cheese with Bacon Mac |
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| #1 had the best name: "I'm Not Like A Regular Mom, I'm A Cool Mom IPA" |
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| The "Jeremy Drinking on Vacation" face |
So there you have it, another successful vacation in the bag. Overall, we thought it was a pretty great babymoon. Leslie got a bit sunburned, and the weather wasn't exceptionally warm in Sedona, but we had a great time and were glad to be able to get away before the wee baby Miller arrives. We've been working on the nursery and have also nearly finished our master bathroom remodel, so definitely some new posts coming soon. But, in the meantime, thanks for reading this one and we'll see you next time!
