The Grand Canyon

09.05.2009

I woke up this morning to the sound of two dogs freaking out. Carrie has trained them to fetch the newspaper, so now they get really excited when they know it's there. They will bark until you let them out to get it.

Carrie made us some coffee and we talked in her peaceful backyard, under a climbing rose bush in a couple of comfy Adirondack chairs. We found out that Thomas has a gun in his bedroom (!), but I guess it's just the culture that they have in this part of the world.

I munched on some leftover pizza, and then Thomas and Carrie took us to "Ranch Market". It's like a little piece of Mexico, put into an air conditioned facility and transplanted to Arizona. We had some smooth and creamy horchata, bought some FRESH corn tortillas for lunch. They made them right there, and the smell of it transported me right back to Mexico City, circa 1996. I also saw some REALLY cheap paintings, but they were too big to bring back home, so now I'm on a mission to find some art in Sedona.

On the way, we see a sign for "Montezuma's Castle" so we pull over and check it out. It's a 300 year old house built way up on the edge of a cliff. Why the native farmers put it there, no one knows.

We had our picnic lunch in the shade (FRESH TORTILLAS) and took off again, pulling over every so often to take pictures of the Painted Canyon and Oak Creek Canyon.

I stopped at one really upscale art gallery, and found that most things were a bazillion dollars, so I just browsed and happened upon one that really stuck out. "Oh, that one must be so expensive, I won't even bother looking at the price." However, I managed to glance at the price. $275. Sold. Awesome. A really cool looking wood mosaic, matching the hues of the earth in Arizona.

OK, so, everyone in the car except me wanted to go see the Grand Canyon. It was way out of our way, so I told Ryan he had to explain to Howard why we went over our allotted mileage. I don't want to be there when it happens, honestly.

So yeah, we ended up at the Grand Canyon just in time for sunset. It was a little hazy, because of pollution, but still beautiful. I believe that the Grand Canyon is one of those places that truly looks better in pictures than in person. Most people would probably disagree with that statement, but I'm sticking to it.

After that, we went for some Mexican food, which was not really that great, but it was one of the only places open. We wanted to sleep under the stars, but we hadn't brought a tent, and I hadn't brought a very warm sleeping bag. So what we did was drive around until we found a secluded spot, parked and just slept right there, on the ground. We thought it would be a lot warmer than it was. I was totally scared, I was convinced an angry Arizonian would come after us with a shotgun for trespassing on his land. Anyway, I slept until about midnight, then I went into the car because it was too cold. Later on, one by one, everyone else followed. Eventually we were all in the car, and completely freezing.

Montezuma's Castle