The highs and the lows

On Friday, October 5th, Zach and I had our first non-blood relatives arrive for a little visit. Aaron and Amy and Adam and Stacy pulled into our driveway around 11am. We showed them around the house and then had some lunch. After that, Aaron, Adam, and Zach headed out to Granite to go for a quick ride. Amy, Stacy, and I stayed close and drove out Walker Road to trail #297 for a hike.
297 takes you up into the Bradshaw Mountains. The first section was part of a forest fire a few years back. The charred trees make for an interesting view; the colors were beautiful. After our hike, we headed to downtown Prescott for some shopping. Amy and Stacy found some cute stuff for the kids. After about an hour we headed back home for a few ice cold coolies and some nuts on the deck. But that was short lived so we could make happy hour at Coyote Joes for $2 pints of Fat Tire. That's a pretty sweet deal and quite dangerous, considering happy hour is 4-6 and 8-10 every single day of the week.

Our stay didn't lapse too far into the second shift, because we had to walk over to the Brew Pub (Prescott Brewing Co) for some dinner. We were there until like 3 am!! Just kidding, we were at home and in bed by about 10pm. Yes, we are old. We'll blame it on the travelers...after all, 10pm AZ is midnight Chicago time.

The next morning we woke up and showered...at least some of us did, had a quick snack and took off for Sedona. We meant to take the scenic route, but I screwed up the directions and we ended up taking I-17. Which isn't such a bad drive...views are equally lovely, just different from 89A. Had a tasty breakfast/lunch at CoffeePot and drove back towards the Village of Oak Creek for a hike at Cathedral. But it was at breakfast that the infamous hat was purchased.

Cathedral is definitely one of my favorite hikes. The views from above are outstanding. It's not a difficult hike, but there are a few sections that require the simultaneous and strategic use of arms and legs. We took a little break half way up and then forged on, all the way to the top.


We all made it down, safe and sound....with shaky legs and parched lips. Back at Quail Ridge we split into groups, Amy and Stacy went to the Bike and Bean for a Chai Tea and Aaron, Adam, Zach and I followed them there on the bikes. From there Stacy and Amy were able to check out a few stores in the Village of Oak Creek. The rest of the group rode up Bell Rock Pathway and on to the Llama trail, another favorite. We did the full trail and continued on up to Chicken Point. Seems there's always something interesting going on up there. This trip we were witness to a wedding. Not such a bad place to get married. We took the Bell Rock Pathway all the way back to Quail Ridge and finished the ride with a nice soak in the tub.

You certainly can not go to Sedona without catching some Mexican food at the Javelina. Even though no on the trip really likes mexican, we went there anyway. Too bad no one enjoyed the bottomless baskets of chips and salsa, or the beers or margaritas they serve there. We all went home hungry. It was another SUPER late night out, man are we party animals!!! I can't even post the pictures from that night...they are just not appropriate for this website.

And that about ends our first night in Sedona. More on Day 2 later.