Girls Vacation to Sedona, Arizona: Days Eight & Nine

Yesterday was a day of rest!  After a week of constantly being on the go, we all needed a break.  We enjoyed a nice relaxing day at home with a little bit of shopping thrown in, and then we went to dinner at mom and Geri's friends' house down the street.

Today we got up bright and early and went on a jeep tour of the Broken Arrow area of Sedona.  The jeep was bright pink, and we saw lots of Sedona from high above the city. 

We had so much fun on the bumpy road!  In many places, it felt like we were going to topple forwards or backwards in the jeep because it was so steep.

 

Our tour guide was a great photographer!

 

I took some pictures too:

The tour guide taught us lots of stuff about how the rocks formed:

And how the Native Americans used plants in their daily lives:

The girls posed for pictures: 

 

I took more interesting shots that we wouldn't normally be able to capture:

You can see Sedona way down in the valley in this picture:

These pictures were taken on top of Submarine Rock:

 

Submarine Rock was huge:

And it showed evidence of a Strike Strip Fault from an earthquake long ago.  We took pictures of that too and we will share them with the science teacher when we return to school. 

On the way back to Uptown Sedona, my girl Amanda admired herself in the mirror for me:

That's the only way I could see her when we were on the road, because she was riding shotgun with the guide.  I would definitely recommend this tour to other people visiting Sedona, but I'd recommend sticking with the early morning Jeep tour like we did.  It was already pretty hot by the time we got back to the base at 9:00am!

We had lunch at our favorite Sedona restaurant, The Wildflower Café, and then went back home to recuperate.  The girls and I fitted in an afternoon swimming session too!  Tomorrow is another day of adventure :)



Girls Vacation to Sedona, Arizona: Day Seven

We traveled to Red Rock State Park just outside of Sedona today.  We watched an amazing film about the Sedona area, and then took in the tiny museum housed with the gift shop there. 

There was a beautiful deck there overlooking the red rocks so we stopped to take some pictures.

 

Amanda looks like a princess in a tower:

We had lunch at a resort hotel in Sedona and then went back to the house to rest for a while.  The girls and I also took time to go swimming in the evening. It was just way too hot to swim during the day...

Girls Vacation to Sedona: Day Six

After spending the night in a hotel in Flagstaff, Arizona, we made our way to Walnut Canyon just outside of town.  The girls and I were determined to descend 240 stairs to see the cliff dwellings at the bottom of the stairs.  This is at the start of our journey into the canyon:

This is after about 40 stairs: 

She's still going strong!  We took a break after a few more steps (by this time Nicole was getting irritated at all the pictures!):

But Amanda was enjoying the attention :)  Shade was in short supply on this hike.

 

There were cliff dwellings all along the cliff on the other side of the canyon.  If you look carefully to the right of Amanda in this picture, you'll see some of them:



 

This was the first cliff structure we saw. 

After hiking down in the canyon, we finally found the actual cliff dwellings:

And yes, I was actually there too!  This is for you, Sis!

This was inside the cliff dwellings:

Making our way back out of the cliff dwellings.  It was a long, hot, hike back up to the top!

Amanda is pointing to the visitor's center at the top of the steep set of stairs:

Back up the stairs we go!

Resting on the way back up:

We finally made up back up!  After we cooled down a little, we went to the Museum of Northern Alabama to see some of the pueblo artifacts that would have been used in the cliff dwellings.  We are TIRED today, but it was such a great experience for all of us!

Girls Vacation to Sedona, Arizona: Day Five

We woke up early on Wednesday morning to make our way to Flagstaff, Arizona.  We went through Oak Creek Canyon, where we observed the scenery:

And shopped a little:

 

We made our way to the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff.  This observatory found Pluto back in 1930 after many years of searching the night skies for it.  The girls got to move an old telescope:

Notice the 1950's tires up at the top of the picture?  They had one of those tires every few feet and that's how they moved the telescope.  The tour guide says they'll be in trouble if they have a blowout!

This is the actual equipment used to find Pluto! 

 

 

 

We toured the compound of the Lowell Observatory, where there were many different buildings that used to house telescopes.  One of them had a sliding roof, and another had a roof that opened at the peak.  It was so interesting!  I'd definitely recommend the tour to other people.

 

My girl Nicole likes her green!

You can see Flagstaff in the distance behind her.

 

We went out to dinner and then went swimming at the hotel.  We had a great time exploring Flagstaff, Arizona!

Girls Vacation to Sedona, Arizona: Day Four

Our day started today with a hike up to Bell Rock with the girls.  It was already pretty hot when we left the house at 8:00 am, but we really wanted to get up close to the rock.

 This is as close as we got.  We were WAY too overheated by the time we got there:

We spent the rest of the day exploring downtown Sedona, eating lunch at one of our favorite restaurants, admiring the plants, and touring the area to see the different red rocks. 

Nicole liked this one because it's our favorite college football team's (University of Washington Huskies) colors :)

Tomorrow we'll be off on another adventure!

Girls Vacation to Sedona, Arizona: Day Three

Today we woke up bright and early and traveled to Montezuma's Well.  There wasn't really much to see here, other than a couple of rock houses built into the side of the cliff overlooking the water.  The girls really enjoyed reading about the ancient civilization that occupied that area.

 

 

Then we traveled to Montezuma's Castle:

 By this time the girls were starting to get a little tired and hot :)

 

 

But we still had more things to see!  Next was the Tuzigoot Pueblo Ruin:

We made our way to Jerome, Arizona after this to see the town that clings to the side of the cliffs, before going swimming in Cottonwood.  It was an amazing and full day of adventure!

 



Girls Vacation in Sedona, Arizona: Day Two

Today we took a little tour of the Forest Station down the street from Grandma's and Geri's house. 

The girls are taller than their Grandma!

We had lunch outside at a hotel just a couple of blocks from their house and this was our view:

We spent the rest of the day relaxing and playing games with Grandma and Geri.