Monthly Archive for March, 2003

That hardly went smoothly.

Mary Kate was pretty sick yesterday morning in the Hotel and throughout the day. We made it onto the plane, but the flight attendant basically said that they would really prefer if she didn’t fly. The flight was overbooked anyway and flying sick is no fun. So America West put Ben and Mary Kate up in the Radisson at the airport and Niamh and I stayed on the plane.

Unfortunately, that plane never left the ground. They found some problems that needed to be addressed before the plane could fly, so we got off, had some dinner, and waited for another plane.

The plane they found was much smaller than the original, so they started offering vouchers and whatnot for passengers willing to take a red-eye through Philadelphia instead of our nice direct flight. Eventually they offered $300 vouchers for a flight that arrived at 8:45am instead of our original flight, which by that point wasn’t going to get to Hartford until past 2:00am anyway. So Niamh and I took the vouchers.

So here we are, 2:30 local time. I’m at the dorm, Niamh is at Susan’s recital, both of us dog tired. Ben and Mary Kate are probably at the airport right now. Hopefully they will be getting on a plane this afternoon and will be back here in Storrs before midnight. We’ll see.

On the bright side: all four of our luggage was sitting calmly at the continental baggage desk when we arrived at Hartford. So apart from Ben and MK not having their things last night, we’ve had no baggage incidents all trip. And all in all, it was a fantastic vacation.

Well, here we are back in Phoenix. We drove 420 miles from Bryce Canyon today. All four of us took a leg, so it wasn’t too bad at all. We stopped in Flagstaff, AZ for dinner at the Bun Hugger, a burger famous for their mesquite char-broiled burgers. Food was quite good, but my pallette is getting a bit numb to burgers!

Our day at the Grand Canyon was somewhat short, and bookended by a lot of driving, but the weather was good and the view was spectacular. We arrived at the South Rim sometime around noon, and basically headed east, stopping at each of the points to have a good look at the canyon. Unfortunately, it’s not really something that can be captured in pictures or in words. It’s just an impressive view.

I’ve managed to catch myself a pretty bad cold, and Ben has had a sore throat for a couple of days. It’s kind of absurd that we’re sleeping 10 hours a night, with basically no stress and we’re getting sick. Perhaps it has something to do with the altitude or the rain or not sleeping in the same place two nights in a row. Not sure.

What a beatiful picture. The canyon’s OK too.

At the tower at Desert View, Grand Canyon

We spent the bulk of the day today bumming around Sedona, trying to find something to do and not finding much. We got a pretty late start, so I don’t think we even got to Sedona until about 1:00pm. We went to a visitor center/theater that we had a brochure for and basically got shammed. Some Joe behind the counter wined and dined us with promises of free hotel vouchers if we took a tour of a new facility in Sedona. Turns out we needed to be in the $40k-a-year-making bracket to take advantage of that. We also met the meanest visitor center attendant in the continental U.S. finding that out. So that was kind of a let down.

We did get up to see the Chapel of the Holy Cross, which is a sanctuary nestled in the mountains surrounding Sedona. It was designed by a protege of Frank Lloyd Wright to appear as if it had always been there–as if it belonged there. A beautiful place, we were all inspired.

The Church of the Holy Cross, Sedona

We didn’t accomplish much else. We spent a long time in a collective art store, but didn’t buy anything. We ended up catching an evening showing ot Chicago, which was pretty fantastic. Before the movie, we had dinner. Ben and I had Brisket. Mary Kate had the best garlic mashed potatos of her life. Ned forded a river.

The jackalope. Photo taken illicitly at the Art Mart.

You can do it, Ned!

Ned plunges into the depths of the wild river

Made it. Nuevo Edward takes the day.

We woke up today around 10:00. Niamh and I went for a little walk in the few blocks surrounding the hotel. When we got back, we had a little breakfast: Safeway grapes (delicious and safe), Pugliese bread with honey, a banana each for Ben and I, and some Nature Valley granola bars. Ben just got out of the shower, and we’re packing up for Sedona. It’s raining on and off: the ground is wet, but the sun is shining. In a fifteen minutes, the opposite will be probably true. We’ve got raincoats, though, so it shouldn’t be a problem. Crossing our fingers for good weather the rest of the week.

Niamh and Mary Kate partake of breakfast

We had beautiful weather today for our visit to Montezuma Castle. It was raining as we walked into the visitor’s center, so we checked out the (quite informative) displays inside. We also bought our National Park Service pass so that we wouldn’t have to pay admission to this or any of our later destinations. When we were ready to check out Montezuma’s monument, we stepped outside, to find that the clouds had parted and the sun was shining. For us. We had beatiful weather as we strolled among the lovely flora below the cliff dwellings.

Posing in front of Montezuma Castle

Niamh, sprawling–not climbing

After Montezuma Castle we had lunch in the car. The gorp was delicious, as were the Peanut Butter and Honeybear sandwiches.

Lunch in Montezuma Parking Lot

A half an hour and we were on the road again. We decided not to go to Tuzigoot, as it was somewhat out of the way and Ben’s parents had said it wasn’t all that impressive. Instead we decided to check out Montezuma Well, a 55 foot deep spring coming out of the rocks in a large basin with cliff dwellings around the rim. We had a little hike down the stairs to the water level. Neat place.

On the stairs, descending into Montezuma Well

Now we’re sitting around in our room in Munds Park, at the Motel In The Pines. We’re checking out the weather for the next few days, which looks kind of bad. It’s snowing pretty heavily right now. Snow here and at the Grand Canyon through Tuesday, and cold (40ish) in Bryce the rest of the week. Still, we’re having a great time. We’re probably going to head into Sedona tonight for some grub and to check out what options we have for tomorrow.

Spring Break, Aspen