Pictures of AZ. They have captions, although out of order captions. Bear with my lack of Flickr skills.

Drove out on Wednesday and stopped for breakfast at Major’s Diner in Pine Valley, which apparently used to be on the main road. Now it’s 7+ miles off the 8 freeway. Hit Yuma, and hit the Cracker Barrel. Mac ‘n Cheese and Chicken ‘n Dumplings people. Seriously, Yuma is not that far.

Stayed in a Crowne Plaza in Chandler that’s in their developing Old Town Chandler. There was an art/craft walk the night we arrived. Everybody has something to drink and walks the street to see the exhibit. I got a hammered silver necklace for cheap. Also ate at the cool little bistro restaurants at Old Town.

Bought $10 swim suits and sat by the pool. Read the Christie book from Sarah and Andrew.

Drove to Sedona with Mike and Danielle. Stopped at Montezuma’s castle and ate Fry Bread on the way off the reservation. Sedona is cool. You’re driving through the desert, often on top of a huge mesa or between purpley hills, when all of a sudden the earth explodes into this strange display of red. We all had hamburgers at a Mexican Restaurant. Drove to a rock slide area up the river–you hop in the water and slide along the slippery red river rock. Drove back to Gilbert, saw their apartment, and got to take a night time stroll through their now dry-walled house, which is fabulous already.

Saturday we drove to visit Paul’s Great Uncle Jack (that’s Grandma Rose’s brother) and Aunt Mae in Payson, a remote westerny town that kinda reminded me of Big Bear. Nice to see them, to eat chicken salad sandwiches with them, and to reminisce.

Went to church with Mike and Danielle. They’re meeting at the very cool looking Williams Field High School, which is so new it’s not on any maps. Lots of cool blocky colors, the sorta place you could film Heroes. Their Sunday setup is simple but fun, and Danielle makes all the coffee and plays donut-nazi to the kids begging for more. Nice to see Mike happy, on stage and doing his thing, even if a bit farther away. They took us to Joe’s Farm Grill, a restaurant made of the old family homestead which still sits on a few acres of land the family still farms, and where they get all their produce for the menu. Later went searching for Mexican restaurant and creme brulee. Still searching for the latter.

Leisurely drive home with a quick stop in Gila Bend, AZ for a potty break. Bad news: whole town shut down due to water problems. Get in car. Drive fast to rest stop 26 miles away. Boo Gila Bend.

Off to another vacation, this time to LA for turkey day. See some of ya’ll there.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 21st, 2007 at 5:40 pm and is filed under From the nation of Indig. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.