Surprise in Flagstaff

Sunday, May 31 - We stopped in Flagstaff for lunch on our way from Sedona to the Grand Canyon. While planning for the trip, I had been in touch with Josh, who I grew up with in Petoskey, Michigan. He lives in Flag, and suggested that we try Railhead Red at the Beaver Street Brewery when passing through, so that's where we headed for lunch. I texted him when we got there, because we were going to try to connect either today or tomorrow. He asked if we were going to be there for 10 minutes, and when I said yes, he said "We're on our way with santa clause." I wasn't quite sure what that meant - presents? - but I thought, "great."

Several minutes Josh and his wife Ginni arrived, with two other people - our family friends the Reas! They just happened to be in Flagstaff this week, visiting several of the same national parks that we are!

Now to the Santa reference: When my sister and I were really little, Dr. Rea used to dress up as Santa at Christmas time. One year, our parents had put us in the bath together, and Dr. Rea - aka Santa - came over. He came right upstairs into the bathroom to visit us, and it sounds like we were dumbfounded that Santa would show up while we were taking a bath! Mom said that he gave us an orange and a grapefruit. Hilarious.

We had a great time catching up with everyone in a random Petoskey renewal. Thanks to Josh and Ginni for their great suggestions for our trip, and we hope to cross paths with the Reas again somewhere this week in one of the parks!

Hike in Sedona

Sunday, May 31 - Had a great hike in Sedona for a little over an hour. Could have stayed out there longer - the weather is perfect - but gotta hit the road. Headed to Flagstaff and then over to the Grand Canyon.

Breakfast in Sedona

Sunday, May 31 - What a great way to start the first full day of the road trip. We just finished breakfast outside at the Amara Resort in Sedona. That's Snoopy Rock in the background. We're now headed out for a hike!

Beer in Sedona

Saturday, May 30 - We had our first local beer at the Cowboy Club in Uptown Sedona: Oak Creek Amber from the Oak Creek Brewing Co. A little bit sweet, and it went down very easy after being up for almost 20 hours.

First glimpse of Red Rock

Saturday, May 30 - This was a really welcome sight: the first peeks of the red rocks as we approached Sedona in the Oak Creek Canyon. The only shame was that it was getting dark so quickly!

Car rental

We actually had a great experience at Enterprise when we picked up our car. Super friendly staff, a concierge which takes you out to pick out the car that you want, and *lots* of free bottles of water for their customers!

Frank Lloyd Wright in Phoenix

Saturday, May 30 - After visiting Frank Lloyd Wright's home Taliesin in Wisconsin on the first day of our trip last year, we thought it was fitting that we visit Taliesin West in Scottsdale before we headed north out of Phoenix on our first day. Our tour guide, Frank, gave us our money's worth - we got over 2 hours out of a tour that was scheduled for only 90 minutes. He was quite the philosopher and talker, but it turns out Frank first met FLW when he was 19, studied here, and was an architect for 40 years. And man, it was HOT - about 95 degrees. Frank did a good job of keeping us in the shade or inside. Taliesin West is still a functioning school for architects, and they are constantly in the process of restoring the property. FLW always considered his own properties as experimental projects - Frank said that FLW considered them "sketches" - since he wouldn't take such risks on designs for his clients. Taliesin West utilized rocks from the property so that it blended into the landscape.

Fancy airport bathroom

Saturday, May 30 - It all started for me in New York when the alarm went off at 3:40am... Had a 6:35 flight to Phoenix out of JFK. Painful, but worth it in the end. I flew out of terminal 7, which I noticed had been renovated and had nice stores - even a Balducci's for pre-flight snacks. Then I went into the restroom... Since when do they make airport mens rooms like this?

Beer and Music

We hope to have at least one regular, if not daily, feature on the blog. A road trip favorite from last year was local beer. So, we will attempt to try a new local beer at every stop and will post a full report. We're open to taking requests on the road, so if there's something you think we should see or do, post a comment and let us know.

We're also taking suggestions for good music for the road. There are a couple of obvious ones, like "Route 66" (we'll be on the old Route 66 for a bit) and "Take it Easy" ("Standing on a corner in Winslow Arizona..."). If you have any playlist suggestions, post 'em here!

The Route

This is our anticipated route. (You can click and drag the map to see the entire route.) If you have any recommendations for things to do, places to see, or places to eat, we'd love to hear them! Please feel free to post any thoughts here.


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Memorial Day

I stopped by the Memorial Day ceremony this morning at the Soldiers and Sailors Monument in Riverside Park at 89th Street. The Marine Corp band played "America" as names were read. It was an appropriate start to the week in which we start Road Trip 2009, where we will explore America's Southwest and visit National Parks.