Tlaquepaque in Arizona 2011

Tlaquepaque is an Arts and Crafts village in Sedona, Arizona

 This is a beautiful place to wander in and out of the shoppes.  We found a nice Mexican place for a lovely lunch. 

This, of course, is my chauffeur, Ed. 

Ed is really into the shopping! Ha.     Every shop is different and most are very unique.  Frankly, I don't think we bought anything but the great lunch.  If I had a yard, we might have bought the wind sculptures they had there.  But, most of them were waaaay out of my price range.  It was just fun to look at the buildings and the different stuff, and enjoy the warm Arizona sunshine.  That was the very best part!   

Curious about L'Auberge ? Maybe not...

This is the image L'auberge has on their ubiquitous water bottles.  This is the image Ed had in mind when he pulled up to the front of the main building to check in.  When the concierge pointed to a little brown cabin up on the hillside, Ed express immense surprise, as in "On No!  That can't be our cabin, we had one by the creek."  Whereupon the concierge quickly began checking the computer. I'm still struggling to find my paperwork, and thinking "NO, not a creekside cabin, as I remember the rates for those were through the roof."
After a momentary fluster, I found all my reservation paperwork and said calmly to Ed and the concierge who was looking for a way to change our room up, "No No, we're fine in the Vista Cabin."    (Which I had chosen so we would have a deck with a view of the red rocks - along with a MUCH better daily rate.)

Which was fine.  Except that these cabin choices are up on the very side of a steep hill.  So steep they do not expect anyone to walk to the cabins, and they have a whole system of transporting guest to the cabins via golf carts.  They have little driveways/walkways built which are actually quite nice.   But, where I had pictured about a dozen odd little cabins, there were probably about 100 (we had #83) stacked neatly in at least two rows along that hillside.  Ed said the foundations were an interesting marvel of engineering, actually quite nicely done.  The identical cabins were quite modern, with a gas fireplace in each one.  They might have been modular units (trailers?).  We even had a huge outdoor shower, so you could bath under the stars (or sun).  It was just a bit cold for that. 

Fortunately, we had both a huge soaking jacuzzi tub, and a great large glass enclosed indoor shower.  And TWO sinks.  Yay!   Imagine my dismay when I caught Ed brushing his teeth in MY sink.  Shoot.
That isn't a photo over the tub, that is a window. 

The furnishings were nice, which Ed immediately re-arranged so he could see the TV from the nice arm chair ;-)
I think we were supposed to leave the chairs facing the window - its all about the VIEW!

This is one view from our deck. Note the snow on the high rocks!

Sunsets were very pretty here.  That is the restaurant below us.  

Can you find Snoopy Rock?  look to the right.   We actually saw a hiker getting rescued off of Snoopy's belly.  Guess he got stuck there.   Helicopters were flying over and rangers were visible hiking and throwing ropes to him.  It was really interesting to see.

The best part was the deck.  The deck had a great, really great view!   I loved the deck. Below is a view from our deck of the astronomer setting up - center of this photo. 



My other very favorite part was the in-house astronomer.  He came out two evenings and set up his custom made telescope so we could enjoy the night sky.  It was amazing, and he was good at explaining the constellations.  I have a view of the moon through that telescope that was really cool, best I've ever seen.

One thing I know for sure, I would like to retire somewhere that I can see some stars at night.  It doesn't have to be Loon Lake in the high Sierras (although that would certainly work!), but at least I want to be able to walk outside and see the night sky in its real glory, with some stars. 

I think this is Courthouse Rock.  Pretty neat.

Tuzigoot National Monument

Vortexes, Native American ruins, and beautiful high desert.  These are the things we enjoyed on our trip through northern Arizona last month.

 All of the photos on this page were taken near Tuzigoot, which means crooked water if I'm remembering correctly.  They had a really nice visitor center, small, with a good exhibit area. 

 This is about 23 miles south of Sedona, also south of Flagstaff.   The views are of the mountains in the distance and the valley in the near ground.  This was a beautiful mild December day, with lots of birds around, some squirrely type creatures, and a fair number of families visiting. 

About 10 years ago, we hiked through the Andes in Peru to visit a similar ruin, Machu Picchu.  Although Machu Picchu is somewhat more sophisticated in structure than this ruin, there are similarities.  The native people seem to have a real affinity for the energy of the earth.   (And a healthy respect for the earth and nature.) 

Both Peru and Arizona seem to have vortexes, or highly spiritual energy points.  I think we have much to learn from the native people and from the earth. 

Like the Incas, no one knows why the Sinagua people left this ruin.  Drought, disease, famine, or conquering invaders.  We don't know enough about how they lived to understand why they left. 

 We entered one of the rooms that was mostly underground, and found it very cool and comfortable.  The people had found a way to deal with the unyielding heat of the desert. 

Arizona Biltmore

Beautiful lobby area in the hotel, we enjoyed exploring.  

Can you find Ed in the lower photo?

Christmas Eve Dinner with Family 2011

  On Christmas Eve, we enjoyed a wonderful dinner together at the Arizona Biltmore.  We ate at Wrights, which is just about the most romantic and lovely restaurant I've ever seen.  Very nice!  We are so lucky to be able to be together, all of us living so far apart.   I am most grateful.  What a great evening with wonderful family. 

Our table is the one way in the back here, up on a little raised area of its own.  It couldn't have been a better table. 

Todd and Amanda here, are on the rooftop deck, overlooking the outdoor tree the Biltmore has.

The lobby was beautiful, filled with trains, Mrs. Santa reading stories for the children at the hotel, and gingerbread houses.  It was interesting and festive!

Ray and Joey in the Biltmore lobby after dinner.


We were really treated like royalty and it was just a lot of fun catching up with everyone.  The best part is all of us together.