Family -- Arizona, February 2016
In February, my neighbor, Dale, and I visited our neighbor, Beth, who was spending a month in Sedona, AZ. As luck would have it, my brother and sister-in-law, Roger/Jane, live an hour away in Prescott, so we were able to kill 2 birds with one visit. Lovely sunrise on the day we left - time to rise and shine and get ready to hit the airport!!
Dale and I flew into Las Vegas and picked up a snappy rental car there. Rule #1 - always take a pic of your rental car license plate. As soon as we scoped out the coupe and found out how the lights and windshield wipers worked, our journey to Prescott began.
Loved our 2016 Mazda 6! Twice we found ourselves driving in wide open spaces around 100 mph. Ooops!!!
Roger and Jane's lovely home to the MAX!
Quaint stone path leading to The Cottage where Dale and I spent 3 nights in bliss. Every amenity you can imagine.
The Cottage - so cute and accommodating.
A couple shots from inside The Cottage. Absolutely homey and such a welcome feeling! We were well-fed in The Cottage - scones, jam, oj, coffee, raisin bread, fruit and yogurt to start off our early morning wake-up.
Roger and Jane live on the edge of a golf course. Here's the view from "The Point," where guests can sit in shaded or heated comfort pretty much year-round. Soothing and relaxing for sure.
The Cottage kitchen table. Note how it's attached to the wall. Also note the lovely flowers to greet us! All thoughtful touches.
The little red wagon, made by our niece and her husband as a gift for Roger and Jane, carries The Cottage guests' luggage and whatnot from their car to The Cottage. Convenience and efficiency were apparent all around us.
A welcoming sign on our cottage.
On our first morning, Roger and Jane took us to Lynx for breakfast - a family owned restaurant. Super food, excellent service, all in a beautiful setting.
We took a tour of Gurley St. and Whiskey Row, both in downtown Prescott. Following are pics of our walking tour.
The Courthouse
Notice the Elk on top of theater
We walked inside the historic Hassayampa Inn, opened in 1927. Gracious setting.
Inside the old Hassayampa Inn. So warm and welcoming.
Interesting artwork above the Inn's bar.
Of course I had to see the inside of one of Prescott's casinos. Here are a couple of pics from their patio, the outside and inside.
Roger asked me to make our mom's potato salad. I thought that would go nicely with my chicken wings for lunch one day. Yum!!! Dale helped with the cooking!! We made a real mess, ha ha!
Off to dinner one night at Murphy's! Wow, what a super waitress we had. She made it a fun night!
We left Prescott and Roger and Jane with a heavy heart. The next leg of our trip was a 5-hour visit to Carefree, AZ, where I got to meet my "online" friend, Linda, and her husband, Akira. Linda showed us a lovely time in town, took us to several shops where my charge card was put to good use, then she made and served us a memorable Japanese soup for lunch at their majestic mountain home. Such a gracious host and hostess! Loved meeting both of them in person, finally!!
Linda was kind enough to show us the Town Dump ... Worth the visit (and the laughs!!).
Linda and Akira on their huge deck which a plethora of different cacti.
Above, this barely captures the spaciousness and warmth of Linda and Akira's eating/dining/lounging area. So rustic, laid out with much originality and beautifully decorated. That house wrapped its arms around us as soon as we walked in.
Leaving Linda and Akira after this lovely lunch, Dale and I headed to Sedona to meet up with Beth, our neighbor. We stayed at The Rooms Upstairs, where Beth was also bunking.
Our parting gift from Linda, the wine she bottles and labels under the name "Holy Expletives." Google it!! Wow!!
Our adventures with Beth started out with a lovely dinner at Open Range Grill and Tavern. Here are some of our other adventures, including a Trolley Ride around Sedona. We also did a lot of walking (and eating)!
Beth in her glory enjoying a night out on the town with us.
Alas, our 3 nights with Beth came to an end. After a harrowing mountain drive (thanks to Dale who drove and kept us safe), we arrived in Flagstaff for a real local diner breakfast. Then we continued to Las Vegas to return
our spiffy rental car and spend the night at The California, my home away from home, before flying back home.
(above) Both Dale and I know this is a gawd awful pic of us, but it memorializes one heck of a good dinner at The Redwood Grill at The California Casino and Hotel, where we spent our last night. We were so very tired, but extremely happy, and this dinner was a superb ending to our trip. Thanks to Dale for sharing this trip with me.
(left) P.S. A few weeks after we got home, Dale cracked open the bottle of wine from our Carefree, AZ friend, Linda. Notice, we wrote ZITI on the label (which is a cool feature of Holy Expletive wine - the little Sharpie pen is already attached to each bottle). Linda's Merlot was a delicious accompaniment to our baked ziti/salad/garlic bread dinner.
phone: 410-610-2534 email: shar@sharonmunro.com 8339 Bay Crest Ct. Chesapeake Beach, MD 20732
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