Sedona and Grand Canyon

So...we actually did a little more travelling over the holiday weekend, since Tally hasn't started her teaching job yet, and I was off until Wednesday and noon. For those of you outraged at my five-day weekend, let me explain: You can thank the United States Marine Corps. On holiday weekends, they are very adept at turning nice breaks into huge breaks. All of the holiday weekends are either referred to as a "72" or a "96", meaning the number of hours the "liberty" is. Liberty in the military is time that you just have off--you don't have to burn any of your leave. Labor day weekend is a "96". I knew we were getting off at noon on Friday, so adding four days (96 hours) to that, I thought we'd be back at work at noon on Tuesday. However, apparently that was not enough of a break. The "96" must refer to the number of full days off, because we didn't have to be back until Wednesday at noon. Pretty cool, huh?

Anyhoo, after the Wienerschnitzel fiasco (see previous posts), we decided to go through Phoenix to stay in scenic Sedona and visit the Grand Canyon. I always pictured Arizona as pure desert, but that's not even close to the case. Much of Arizona is desert, but much of central Arizona is mountainous, with a lot of trees, and, of course, the northern part contains the Grand Canyon.

As I mentioned, we decided to stay in Sedona (http://www.visitsedona.com/). I had driven through it on my way out here. It is very scenic because of its mountainous terrain and because much of the terrain is very pretty red rock. I'll attach some pictures of the Grand Canyon and one I tried to take at Sedona (they may not show up that well).

If you've never been to the Grand Canyon, it's amazing. We only went for a little while, as we had the dogs and it was kind of chilly. I'd love to go back for a more extended period of time in the future to do some hiking, camping, and rafting. I'm not sure if I can talk Tally into all that, though. Hmmm....maybe if I tell her there's a Gap at the bottom with a good sale. Just kidding, honey.

On the way back from the Grand Canyon, winding down into the valley where Sedona is, we came across tons of people parking their cars along the narrow road. Many had their swimsuits on. There was a small creek winding through the canyon, but it was very shallow, and we couldn't figure out what was going on. I asked someone back in town, and they told me that they were going to Slide Rock State Park (http://azstateparks.com/Parks/SLRO/index.html). Apparently, there is a natural waterslide carved into the red rock.

On the way home, we wound up a mountainside and stopped in this cool small town called Jerome, AZ (http://www.azjerome.com/). It used to be a mining town, but has been reborn with a lot of cool shops, restaurants, etc. Very touristy, but cool.