Traveling in Style

Today was a good day in Sedona.  We left our room about 9:45 and drove to Jerome to look around some more.  It is so cute and worth a visit.

After a little more than an hour we drove to Clarksdale to take the Verde Canyon Railroad trip.  It was a 4 hour total ride.  Two hours into the canyon and they moved the engine to the other end of the train, and than it pulled us back for two hours.

We had sparkling cider and a little snack buffet available on the ride.  Here are a couple of the scenes along the ride including the front and back of the train from where we were.

Here the train is going over the SOB trestle.. No it doesn't mean that! It stands for Superintendent Of Bridges, you silly peoples.

This was a lucky shot of the Verde River.  It is surprising how such a little bit of water can bring life to a whole valley.  It is not quite as much water as the canal that ran through Logan.  Only about twice the water that usually goes through Woods Creek by the cabin. 

After the train ride we drove back to Sedona and went to see The Chapel.  It is a very spiritual little place and in a most beautiful spot.  Built into the rocks it almost has to be seen to be believed how it was done.

And the views from the Chapel, how many times can amazing still be an effective to discribe anything?  The two rocks standing together are called the Nuns, and the rock formation at the left is Cathedral Rock.

On the right of this picture is bell rock, and the left in Montezuma's Castle.
We had dinner at the Cowboy Cafe again.  A fun local place with good food. and took a stroll down the street again to finish off the day.
What a good day it was. Thank you all for your texts, calls, messages, and the love I felt today from friends and family alike.  It was a great birthday and I love you all.
Ma and Pa say goodnight.

Adventure in Sedona

On Tuesday the 17th of may we rousted Ashley out of bed early so she could drive us to the Airport.  We were on our way to Phoenix, where we rented a car and drove to Sedona.  What a gorgeous drive it was.  And then we got to Sedona and found how really gorgeous the scenery could be. 
    Tuesday was a long travel day so we just went across the street to the Cowboy Cafe for dinner.  Cowboy it was, but it was good food.  Dan had a hamburger that he had to send back because it was too raw.  I had a pork loin chop with sweet potato mash, fresh steamed vegetables and a reduction of onion, apple and bacon as a finish on the meat.  You all know I love my meals and this one was good.
     Wednesday we went to check out a time share in the valley.  Interesting hour and a half.  We had lunch in a little local place and drove to Jerome.  It is a little mining town perched on a hill. Steep windy road and steep hill.  There were lots of windy little streets to walk with dozens of little shops to see.  All sorts of things, antiques, papers, books, clothes, gifts, and more.  One of my favorite stores was a giftshop that specialised in Kaleidescopes.  I spent at least an hour in there playing with their toys.  Finally Dan told me to just buy something already so we could just move on.  I found a beautiful wood teleidescope made out of black walnut and maple.  A teleidescope is a tube with a clear lens on the outside so that anything you see through it is multiplied by the mirrors inside.  Great fun to play with. On the drive home we stopped for mexican food,(ok) and ended up in our hotel early.

     Today we had breakfast at the hotel, (good!) and hit the streets for a little walking before our activity of the day.  Pink Jeep Tour.  It was so much fun.  They really are pink jeeps decked out for sight seeing and it was such a good, fun ride.  We took the Broken Arrow tour and it was hard core country four wheeling. 

Here I am on submarine rock with the tour guide, Dan.

And here was the first of the stunning views of the tour.

Dan is standing on Chicken Rock.  It was so named because the early jeep drivers would drive around the point to scare everyone in their cars.  Thank goodness they don't do that any more.

And these are the before and after shots of a 45 degree grade.  We had a quick explanation of what a controlled slide was and off we went.

This was so much fun that I can't wait until we get another chance for a ride.

We should have further tales tomorrow.

Love you all!

Goodby to Sunny California

This blog is so different to do than the one we did while we were in New York. There was so much to do every day that I needed to update every night to I could remember everything. Here, on the other hand, We do so much of the same thing every day that one blog will be plenty. In the morning when we get up the sun is shining (yes Virginia, there is sunshine somewhere every day!).

Dan sits in the sun (but not for very long) and works or studies for the morning. I get up when I feel like it and lay out until about noon or so. After getting showered and dressed we pick somewhere to have a late lunch every day. We pass this beautiful view of the golf course coming and going every day.

Some of the places we have picked to eat have been pretty bad. It's not fun to do that. But some of the last ones we have eaten in were great. We found the Old Town area of La Quinta and it had 7 different places to eat. We have had great meals since we have tried eating in these places. The first place was this one that is owned by Clint Eastwood. It is called the Hogs Breath Inn. He has one in Carmel, and this one. Some of the locals said that he comes up once in a while to check up on it and will stay for the evening and play the piano for a couple of hours. How fun would that have been?

We took one afternoon and went to the Temple in Redlands. It was small, but very unique. We really enjoyed visiting it.

Unfortunately the closest we came to seeing ol' Clint was this: Isn't this picture one from "The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly? Or is it from "High Plains Drifter"? I don't remember .

Here we are taking advanatage of the last sun we will get today. It is hard to say goodby to a fun vacation. No matter where it was.

this one was great and the timing was perfect, as far as the weather was concerned. Mid to high 70's is great! In the summer it gets as hot as 120 degrees during the day. Records are even higher. NO THANKS!

Good-by palm trees and desert views. Hello Seattle and the north west weather tomorrow.

Love you all.

Ma and Pa

Leavin' on a jet plane

Here we are saying a last good bye to Vegas. Can't wait to go back!

Las Vegas wrap up

Oh how jaded we must be after only a few short visits to L.V. I realised today that I didn't even take a single picture. How unlike a Conlin is that?
We had a lazy morning and decided to go for a little walk on the blvd. Cold? I mean really COLD! Not as cold as in Colorado where Adam and Colleen and the brood is, but cold for here. It was in the low 20's early this morning and the wind was blowin'. Even on the sunny side of the street it was too cold to stay outside without warmer clothes than we had.
We hustled across the street to eat at a disapointing place for lunch, and hustled back into Ceasars' to stay warm.
This evening we walked next door to the Bellagio to see "O". It is a great show where there is a stage which would change from hard solid floor, to puddles and rain, to a pool that people were diving and jumping in from sometimes a long way up. Acrobats, dancers, trapeze artists, clowns and more were in the cast. It was very worth seeing.
Tomorrow we will be leaving sunny but cold Las Vegas. Can't wait till I can come back again. I love the shows and entertainment you can find here. Celine comes back again in March. Hmmmmmm.........maybe a trip for my BD could be the thing to do.
Miss ya all.
Ma and Pa C.

Yes Fans.....Cher still wears a thong.

As many of you may know, I am a Cher fan. She started performing in 1962 when she was only 16 and I was nine. She has my same birthday and I had never seen her in concert. So tickets to see Cher was on my Christmas list. Dan (with a little help from Ryan) gave them to me. Here we are at Ceasars enjoying a couple days of Vegas Entertainment.

The show was great. There was a Death Defying fly in on the "Contraption of Death" as she called it, coming in from off stage way up high on the right and floating down to the stage amid flashing lights and a pumped up audience. There were film clips from all along her career including the Sonny and Cher show, videos from movies, news clips, and little bits of other concerts. All in all my revue of the show is that it is a good show, good concert, good music, and yes-----I wish my ass looks as good as hers. Maybe when I get older.....

Arizona fun

Here is a picture I took when Jan, Angie and I took a trip to Mesa to go to the flea market. It was so much more than that. I tried to get a shot of one of the aisles of the market and couldn't get much of it. Angie was trying to figure out what I was doing.
The aisles are 1/4 of a mile long and there are 4 of them in a line. There are short connecting aisles on each end. As Jan says, "you can find anything here you could ever be interested in", and now I believe. It was quite the trip and a fun thing to do. Can't wait for next time and I hope we have a little more time to look.