Number 6's Blog

September 21, 2022

#blog #travel

Summary

Just to get away for a few days we flew to Phoenix and drove to Sedona for a couple days and then back to Scottsdale for a couple more days before flying home.

I caught up on my rest. We dined at some great restaurants. We hiked a little . Sedona is one of the most scenic areas in the USA; therefore, our eyes were drenched in some of the most brilliant sites imaginable. 

Logistics

Flights

• 9/21: Flight 417 – 10:25AM – 10:50AM
• 9/26: Flight 569 – 11:05AM – 3:40PM

Hotels

• September 21-23 at Wyndham Sedona
• September 24-25 at Home 2 Salt River

Restaurants

• True Food Kitchen Scottsdale for lunch
• Cucina Rustic in Oak Creek for dinner
• The Hudson in Sedona for lunch and dinner. Make reservations as early as you can
• Mesa Grill for lunch at the Sedona Airport
• Beckett’s Table in Phoenix for dinner
• Portillo’s in Scottsdale for when you miss Chicago Italian Beef
• Grassroots Kitchen & Tap in ScottsdaleRestaurants not good
• Golden Goose in Sedona – Been there forever – reminded me of eating back home in Alexis
• Olive & ivy – very good restaurant but nothing on the menu that Gwen can eat

Activities

• Mainly eating and hiking
• Montezuma’s Castle – although not as good as our last visit. Some flooding tore up the area along the river which was the prettiest part of the park
• Oak Creek Canyon
• Jerome 
• Desert Botanical Garden

TL;DR

Sep 21, 2022 at 9:08 AM: Yesterday was the Training Class at Myers Park. Went well. We used Camtasia to the the whole screen to record the video. I’m going the produce the movie on vacation.

The night before Training Class which would be the evening of the 19th Gwen was very restless and non-coherent. We went to bed late because based on her behavior I did not think she would sleep anyway so best to keep her up for a bit. 

Shortly after we did go to bed I must have been asleep she called out to me to take her watch off. I stubbed my toes really bad in fact I think I broke at lest one and the entire foot is sore. Then before I could get to Gwen to take her watch off I fell against the bed “foot board” and hit my thigh pretty bad. The day before that I had banged my left shin against the “foot board” and cut it. It now appears to have an infection and is very sore also. So I have a bad left foot, sore left shin, and sore right thigh. And we are traveling to Sedona to go hiking. What a mess.

Stayed at Mike & Sara’s last night. Had a good time. Gwen slept like a log. She seems to be in a predictable cycle – one night can’t sleep & the next night sleeps like a log.

Sitting at the Airpot in Terminal B waiting on our flight to Phoenix

The flight was on time and the ride was smooth. No passengers hit the flight attendants. Our rental car is a Nissan Kick which is a nice little car. 

Phoenix and the trip up to Sedona is cloudy, cool, and with little light drizzle.

We ate lunch at True Food Kitchen in Scottsdale. – a great and healthy lunch spot.

We made a slight detour and stopped off at Montezuma’s Castle on the drive to Sedona. Its a cool, in the Summer, and shady place to spend some time. The ancient Indians constructed a pueblo 3/4 the way up a sheer Clift there.

Dinner was at the Cucina Rustica in Oak Creek Village. The food and ambience was outstanding. On our next trip I’ll pack a pair of long pants just for restaurants just like this one.

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Sep 22, 2022 at 10:47 PM: Gwen had a bad day today. Lots of pain in her shoulders.l

This morning we ate breakfast in the Wyndham. Then we took a walk on the Sunset Park Trail which is near the condo. 

We had lunch at The Hudson. I think it Gwen’s favorite restaurant – at least for lunch. The views there are most excellent “dude”. We’ve never eaten there for dinner because like Eote you need to book 2 months in advance when the reservations open.

After lunch we drove up to the top of Oak Creek Canyon . Its usually a very scenic and leisurely drive up to the top of the Colorado Plateau. Not this day. First, the rains came with a vengeance . After the rain subsided we came upon a traffic light – red of course. A sign above the traffic light said the light will change within 15 minutes. I believe we waited 14 minutes before it changed. Turns out the road up the escarpment was a one lane road for maybe two miles. We drove to the top, admired the view, and then drove back down to Sedona stopping at the traffic signal again. 

We ate dinner in the condo. – leftovers

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Sep 23, 2022 at 10:58 AM: We slept in until 5AM. Breakfast in the condo again – bread from the Eatery we brought with us from Dallas.

In the morning we drove to Jerome and took some photos. I scored a Indian Scout Sign in a souvenir shop. The only Indian Scout I will ever own.

We ate lunch at the Mesa Grill. It’s not fancy but both of us loved our meals.

After lunch we just drove around the hills taking photos.

Dinner was at the Golden Goose. I think its been in the same location before there was a Sedona. The servers all must have worked their 25 years. This place would fit right in Monmouth Illinois like a glove. Gwen liked her pork chop. I had the meatloaf and would not order it again. If you ever eat there don’t get the calamari. As for us we will find a different restaurant

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Sep 24, 2022 at 8:40 AM: Gwen had another bad night sleeping last night. That’s at least two nights in a row. Hopefully she will sleep better 

Breakfast in the Wyndham and then drove to Scottsdale. 

Lunch at Portillo’s. My Italian Beef was excellent. 

Tried to check in at the Home2. Been waiting 3 hours now. Just setting in the Lobby watching football games. 

In parallel Gwen wanted me to go to an Urgent Care because of my leg swelling. I did and they basically told me they did not know what was wrong and I should go to the local ER in case I had blood clots. Talked it over with Gwen and decided to wait until we are home and go see our family doctor.

Dinner was at Beckett’s Table. We first visited this restaurant on our first visit to Phoenix and liked it so much we have gone back on every trip here. We were not disappointed on this visit either. I had the Green Chili Stew. 

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Sep 25, 2022 at 3:51 PM: Gwen had yet another bad night and so did I. My problem was the bed. It was as hard as a rock. Many hotels have extra firm beds and I don’t know why.

Breakfast was in the hotel as is normal for us on this trip. The bread from the Eatery really paid off. We did have to buy a bread knife here in Scottsdale because the room did not have one. However, the price of the knife was less than a McDonald’s breakfast for us. 

After breakfast we visited the Desert Botanical Garden.

For lunch we drove 5 minutes down the road to Grassroots Kitchen & Tap. I was surprised the server gave us their regular menu. Apparently they don’t have a weekend brunch. Good news for us. Grassroots is definitely a “go back to” establishment. The food was most excellent dude.

We spent the afternoon watching NFL games in the hotel.

Dinner was at Olive & Ivy. Although it’s a great restaurant there is nothing on their menu Gwen can eat so it’s out for us from now on.

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Sep 26, 2022 at 8:42 AM: Up at 5 so we could make our flight. Sitting at the airport now waiting for the flight to board.