Phoenix Trip!
Grand Canyon - Antelope Canyon - Sedona
Day 1
Got up early in the morning and took our Uber ride, courtesy Anil (from Dharmashala in India and from East Bay in the Bay Area ;))to SFO. It was 4am and Anil hadn’t slept all night; yet he chatted on and on :P He told us about this bus, the Dumbarton Express which connects East Bay and Palo Alto. Information that might come in handy in the near future!
We boarded our Southwest aircraft and landed in Phoenix. Rented a Kia Rio from the airport, and our first stop was at a nice breakfast place - duza's kitchen
The ambience was colorful, and the place had a lot of locals. I had french toast while Vijay went for a vegan dish and fruit infused water (which he was disappointed with, to say the least)
Our next stop was at the grandest of Canyons, the South rim of the grand Canyon. Definitely one of nature’s most break taking creations ever! We saw a 3d movie about the grand canyon at the visitor centre. Nat Geo’s movie it was. The movie did a very good job depicting the Navajo tribes, and an unbelievably well shot scene that featured a Spanish traveller and a mountain lion. The moves of he fauna that inhibited the Canyon were depicted beautifully indeed!
We then worked our way through the map and tried to stop at various vista points to get good clicks. And we got quite a few of them :)
We wanted to make it to a tower house to get a good view from above but ended up being unlucky, as the place closed 30 mins before we reached there.
We then headed back to to the visitor centre after sunset to get some pictures.
At the visitors centre, we were surprisingly greeted by a bunch of members from the deer family!
We then began our drive to Flagstaff - first stopping at Delhi Palace for dinner (the place is ok ok, and no match to Bay Area’s finest Indian restaurants), and then at our final stop of he day - the resort by Wyndham!
The resort was amazing! Two TVs, a complete kitchen, a laundry unit - what more can one ask for :D We were too tired and took to bed within a few minutes of entering our room!
Day 2
Day 2 began with a stop at a Mexican breakfast place at Flagstaff. Called MaratAnne’s, it was incredibly crowded and left us waiting outside for about 30 mins before we could get a table. I ordered a Omelette Mexicana - it was delicious and Vijay ordered a vegan dish - which he found delicious too!
After a fulfilling meal, we began our straight drive to Page.
Stopped on the way to see the Horse Shoe Bend and then drove to the Antelope Canyon tourism office.
We were taken to the upper Antelope canyon from there in a jeep (in the company of a fat white man who proudly announced that he had skipped his morning bath, and an old lady from Italy whose love for taking pictures could almost compare to my love of Sachin Tendulkar ;))
We reached the Canyon at about 3:45 pm, and were a bit disappointed with the lack of light inside the canyon. We took a few pics, and our tour guide took a couple of pics of us. He told us that the Canyon was formed from sand dunes, that were compressed into rocks.
We may have mistimed our trip, but for all the hype that it received, the Antelope canyon did not live up to its expectations. We then stopped for dinner at a Mexican place that was pretty ordinary, and began our drive back to the resort.
After a tiring day, we fell asleep quickly after reaching our resort.
Day 3
Nov 9th dawned upon us precisely 12 hrs after our sleep. It was our wedding anniversary!
After quickly eating away a delicious panini at Starbucks, we headed for Sedona! The drive to Sedona was so beautiful, I doubt any adjectives could do it justice. We stopped at the Sliding Rock state park, looked at the majestic mountains that surrounded the area, and hiked a small way down to a mini-waterfall there. We then drove to the Cathedral from there. There was some construction work going on in there, but we got a glimpse of the brick-red Cathedral rock in all its glory.
We then began our drive back to Phoenix but stopped OTW at the Bumble Bee exit to take a click with a tall Cactus plant (or maybe I should call it a tree?)
We lunched at an Ethiopian place at Indian School Rd. The food was delicious and I must confess I over-ate.
It was time to head to the airport and bid goodbye to Phoenix. :(
An amazing first anniversary weekend indeed :D
