sedona

You can tell when I go on vacation because I don't post for a week or so. But don't track that too closely and come rob my house while I'm gone...besides, my rabid cats would totally attack anyone that tried.

Last week we went to Sedona, AZ with Brett's family. The whole family went, all 12 of us. It was a lot of fun. There are always fun reasons to go anywhere with a large group, but sometimes it takes way too long for 12 people to all get headed in the same direction. So I was glad I brought my novels to keep me entertained during the waiting periods.
Sedona was quite beautiful. It was a smallish town that reminded me a lot of Park City, very artsy with plenty of turquoise and Kokopelli and other such Southwestern art. The plan, for me, was to spend the entire week shopping and swimming. But there wasn't anyplace to shop, since I didn't want to buy any turquoise or Kokopelli figurines. And it rained for an unexpected amount of time while we were there, so I didn't get much swimming in. But we did a lot of other things that I didn't expect to do.

A few weeks before we left, we were wandering around the Costco and I found a book called something like "Top 100 Places to Visit Before You Die". One of those places was Sedona, and it gave a few recommendations of what to do while you were there. The book recommended that we visit the Chapel of the Holy Cross. Of all the places we saw while in Arizona, this was my favorite. Brett and I went alone; it was a wonderful way to spend Sunday afternoon, very peaceful. I liked the way the cliffs behind seemed like sentinels, watching over the Chapel. The building itself was beautiful. Plus we got to see this offensively huge mansion being built just below.Another wonderful Sedona discovery was The Caramel Apple. (glorious music playing in the background) I hadn't ever eaten one before, but they had a Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory in Old Town Sedona. I seem to be all about trying new things recently (for example, a few weeks ago I had a cheeseburger with an onion on it for the first time) and so I got one. And oh, my. All I can say is, I'm glad they have Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory stores here in SLC, too. (Also, Jackie, they totally have one in the Chicago Premium Outlets.) Many of you probably already know about this magical chocolate store, but since I'm not too into the whole chocolate scene, it's pretty new to me!

As usual, the best parts of the trip were the nieces. Belle and Lizzy are so interesting! They have tons of stuff to talk about. And I love their little girl bellies. I'm glad we have been able to spend more time with them this summer, because they are getting to know Brett and me. This means they will hang out with us and not be nervous (as long as they can still see their Mom and Dad). Also, I finally caught Lizzy on film doing her theatrics. I have witnessed both she and Belle doing this several times. One minute they are happy and playing around, but if they see they can gain an advantage by bringing out the tears, they have no problem doing that. Here is Lizzy posing for the camera.
Just after that, I told her to do a sad face for me. And she totally started crying (for one second, then she was back to smiling.) I love it! I remember doing that so many times when I was small. There is much power in the tears of a cute little girl.

We also went to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. This was another first for me. The Canyon was amazing. Brett and I want to go again soon, so that we can do some of the hikes down into the Canyon.
I took a lot of pictures with people in them, but they were all lame, so I'm not posting any of them.
And finally, we went to Out of Africa, a safari themed park. This was a really cool park, with a lot of emphasis on interaction (when it was safe) with the animals. On the bus tour, we were given carrots to feed to the giraffe. Lizzy fed hers by hand.
But Brett put his in his mouth, so he could get a giraffe kiss. Brett is not getting any kisses from me for 6 months after this, just to guarantee he is clean again after that little wildlife encounter.
The park had baby zebras, too. If I remember right, the little one on the right is 8 weeks old (or 10 weeks) and the one just to the left of that baby is 14 weeks old or so.
We got to hold an (unfertilized) ostrich egg, which was really gross to me. The egg was all warm from being in the sun and I could feel all the liquid moving around inside. I don't think I'll be able to eat eggs for a while.

There was a beautiful puma at the park, one that had been born in the wild, but her mom was killed when she was 6 weeks old or something. So the park got permission to take care of her and her sister. The trainers said that her sister died a while ago (after 14 years living in the park) and since then this puma has gotten super affectionate with her keepers. Since pumas are the biggest purring cat (in contrast to roaring cats like tigers), you can hear her purr in the video at some points.



She reminded me a lot of Cordelia when she wants attention. The puma totally sat down on the guys lap and started suckling his shirt and kneading on his shoulder. It looked a lot more painful to him than when Cordelia does the same things to us.The park also did this super awesome tiger show where trainers got in the pen with the tigers and allowed themselves to get mauled and chased by the huge frightening tigers. Yikes! After the show, they let people go up and feed the tigers through a fence. I would think they should feed them before the show, so they are less likely to eat the trainers, but they obviously know something about tigers that I don't. Brett got to feed this one (that's his hand).
At the end of the day, we got on another tour bus and followed the trainers around while they fed all the animals. Here's one trainer carrying a large carcass over to the lion for dinner. I think I'm not going to eat steaks for a while, either.
All in all, another great trip. We had a great time staying in that beautiful place with our family. Brett is completely burned out on traveling already (I honestly can't see how), but I'm secretly trying to convince him that he wants to take one more trip this summer out to NYC to visit my super awesome brother and his incredibly cool wife, and our stylishly wonderful friend.