Internet, anyone?

Wednesday in Flagstaff: It's a lovely, cool evening in Flagstaff, AZ. The afternoon storms have been interesting the last three days. The mountains almost disappear in the overcast and the thunder booms. This evening, it's all clear. We are going in search of elk later this evening before dark. We hope to see elk, pronghorn antelope, bison and eagles in a wildlife sanctuary a few miles from here.

The place we are staying while Carol is hospitalized is a beautiful, rustic "house" like a ski lodge with amenities out the wazoo, but their internet has been down for the whole time we've been there. I am currently sitting in the parking lot at the hospital using their wifi. Carol continues to need care, so we are staying put. As Carrie's husband, Paul, said, "Flagstaff is a tough place to be stranded!" It is beautiful here.

I've been to the Lowell Observatory to see the telescopes that Purcival Lowell used to study Mars in the 1920's and the telescope that was used to discover Pluto. We haven't been back there at night to see for ourselves. Maybe we'll do that tonight.

We've been shopping in the historical downtown. It is filled with fun shops and artsy galleries. On Saturday, I went to a 4th of July arts and crafts fair in a park downtown. I found a wonderful potter who was so happy to tell a few of us about her "seconds" in back of her table. My mom was the queen of potter's seconds! I bought a couple pieces for a "steal!"

Later on Saturday, Carrie, Dick and I went to the Northern Arizona Museum for a Hopi Indian festival. It was just fantastic! The museum looked to be very interesting in and of itself, but it was overtaken with native artists selling jewelry, pottery, kachinas, blown glass and fry bread! It was so fun! Dick bought Carol a kachina and Carrie learned every detail of its story. Ask her!

On Sunday (maybe?) after lunch, Carrie and I drove to the Grand Canyon. It's about an hour and a half from Flagstaff and it was raining on the way, which made for interesting sights in the desert. We didn't see any wildlife, though. Well, that's not exactly true. Right before we entered the national park, we stopped to take a picture with Smoky Bear at the forest service drive! When we got there, the rain was stopped at the rim, but we could see the rain and the virga across the canyon. It was really something beautiful to see. We did some shopping and lots of gawking, then drove to a market and picked up a picnic for dinner. We drove around to the east side/end of the canyon to watch the sun set. Ahhhhhh.

Monday, I went in search of a golf course that is ranked in the top 100 courses in the U.S. I found it, but was not allowed in. They don't accept human money, only member tokens. (That experience was reminiscent of when Mom, Dad and I went to Burning Tree in the '80s and Mom was asked to leave because it was "men only." Jerks.) Later, we took a drive out into the hinterlands to find the Flagstaff Arboretum. It was a fun drive and a pretty little arboretum. Nothing grand like the National Arboretum. There were FIR TREES, so I was very happy about that. We watched the Capitol Fourth and the Boston Pops 4th of July fireworks on t.v. and sang Lee Greenwood to each other.

Yesterday, Carrie and I drove to Jerome, through Oak Creek Canyon and Sedona. Oh, my goodness! I already knew I loved Sedona, but Oak Creek Canyon was just as fantastic! We stopped at Slide Rock and waded and communed with lots of lizards. No snakes, thank you, God! In Sedona, we went to the earth energy vortex at the airport mesa and soaked in some healing and grounding. Then, Carrie and I climbed to the top of this huge rock and got some panoramic photos. Breathtaking. (Did I tell you I love Sedona?)

From there, we drove to Jerome, which is a town that once was home to a copper mine. Now, it is a fun old west kind of town in the mountains filled with fun shops, wineries (yes, we did a tasting), and gorgeous views of the desert and mountains. The first shop we stopped in, Carrie walked right over to a pair of turquoise earrings that she loved. The clerk said he was from Gaithersburg, Maryland! This has not been unusual for us this trip. Carrie told herself that she was going to buy the earrings if they were less than $150. (They are huge pieces of green turquoise.) She got them for $50-something!

We headed back to Sedona so we could eat at JAVELINA CANTINA!!!! This is one of Carrie's favorite restaurants and we have talked and talked about when we go there together. It was so fun and the food was great! We had a visitor sit at our table with us. He was a rather large, injured cockroach on the floor near our feet. Carrie kept her feet up on my side of the booth. I sat on my legs. The wait staff was horrified when we told them about him as we left. We kinda bonded with him.

We went into a few shops in the area, one in which Carrie said she felt "drawn." Interestingly enough, there was pottery in the shop created by my mother's favorite potters from Bend, Oregon. Maybe Carrie was channeling Mom for me. A storm broke out over the red rocks of Sedona and I tried to catch a photo of the lightning, but of course was unable to catch it. Carrie scurried into her favorite Hopi jewelry shop and bought herself a birthday bracelet to join her other Hopi jewels. We came back to Flag, visited Carol and then I fell into bed. Did I tell you I LOVE Sedona?

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