Text 24155, 100 rader
Skriven 2009-05-18 02:06:04 av Dale Shipp (1:261/1466.0)
Ärende: Trip Report 1
=====================
I have uploaded pictures taken during our recent trip to the South West
onto photoshack.  The URL for the album is:

http://s311.photobucket.com/albums/kk451/dale5351/SW_trip_2009/

The SW_trip_2009 album has a number of sub-albums.  As you click on each
one, you can see thumbnails for the pictures in that sub-album.

We flew out from BWI to PHX on 23 April, leaving in the wee hours of the
morning.  The flight was decent and uneventful.  We had booked an extra
day in Phoenix, since we wanted to see a bit of the town. I asked at the
hotel desk about getting a Greyline tour the next day.  The desk clerk
called and gave us a confirmation slip showing a city tour leaving at
0830 the next morning.  First night dinner was in the hotel restaurant,
simple fare of sandwiches.

The next morning we got up and had breakfast in the hotel dining area.
It was a buffet, and was made better than average by a very nice fresh
fruit selection.  Otherwise, pretty standard scrambled eggs, bacon,
sausage, etc. choices.  Then we went out onto the patio to wait for the
Greyline tour, along with another two ladies who had also booked the
same tour.  By 0850, it was clear that the tour was a no-show.  One of
the two ladies (both of whom were going to be on our 10 day coach tour)
went in and called Greyline.  They had no record of the booking and were
not even running the tour that day.  She gave them what-for in all of
our names.  Then a decision was made to hire the limo driver who had
brought them from the airport.  He gave the four of us a drive by the
various places in the Phoenix area at a price that was less than the
Greyline tour would have been.  

After a two hour tour we stopped at a mall in Scottsdale for window
shopping and lunch.  Just inside the front door was a Southwest
restaurant that used to have an outlet in Columbia, but closed several
years ago.  It was Z'Tejas, and we made a bee line for it.  For lunch, I
had chile verde off the appetizer menu.  It was a decent portion, nicely
seasoned and I enjoyed it.  Gail's had buttermilk crispy chicken strips
on a salad platter.  That was also good.  We had really liked Z'Tejas
when it was in Columbia (their only outlet east of the Missisippi) , and
were very pleased to have the opportunity to visit it again.  As it
turned out, this was the only place where we got "South West" food
versus Tex-Mex type of fare.  

Later that evening, we had the usual "meet & greet" with the tour
director and other people who would be on our coach tour.  Of course,
this event counted as one day of the ten day tour:-}}  There were 27
people plus the tour director. He was a 73 year old Italian -- ex school
teacher and one time actor.

The next morning, we began the pattern of "bags out" & breakfast at
0700.  Those of you who know us realize that 0700 is *not* our usual
time for starting the day, but it was a routine that we settled into
quickly.  Breakfast was again the hotel buffet.  It was probably the
best of the lot we were to see for the rest of the trip.  The rest of
them were mostly good, but the fresh melon, pineapple, strawberries made
this hotel the best.

Our first day's destination was Sedona.  Along the way, we made some
stops and got our first view of the Saguaro cactus.  This is a very tall
cactus, and after about 70 years begins to develop "arms" that come out
from the tall cone body.  It, and other varieties of cactus, are
prevalent in some areas and totally absent in others.  One of the
curious things about the vegetation on this trip was how localized it
was.  There would be areas with nothing but short pinon pines (from
which we get pine nuts).  Then suddenly, there would be no pinon pines
but instead groves of tall ponderossa pines.  This was partly due to
elevation changes, but other factors were also at play.  

Sedona is a pretty town, and obviously has a strong architectural
committee influence on what can and cannot be built there.  Many of the
houses were of the adobe style in appearance, and pretty much all the
same earth tones.  In driving through town, Gail spotted a McDonalds
with turquoise arches instead of the usual golden arches.  At first we
thought this might be an Arizona thing, and kept looking for other
examples to get a picture.  After I mentioned this on the echo, Dave
Sacerdote found pictures on Flickr.  It turns out that only that one
McDonalds in Sedona has the turquoise arch.  From descriptions we later
saw on Flickr, the city architectural committee objected to the golden
arches, but agreed to the turquoise.  We never did get a picture of our
own, but a google or a search on Flickr.com will turn up examples for
those who want to see.

The next morning, we took a Pink Jeep ride into the hills around Sedona.
This was a large jeep, high wheels for off road travel.  The road was
the old road from Sedona to Flagstaff -- windy, snaking around the
hills, not paved and quite bumpy.  I'll be posting pictures on
photobucket.com soon, and will post a link to them here later.  The
views were very good.  Each day, the views got more and more spectacular
and this was a good start.  After lunch, we boarded the coach for the
trip to the Grand Canyon.

                               Dale Shipp
                  fido_261_1466 (at) comcast (dot) net
                              (1:261/1466)


... Shipwrecked on Hesperus in Columbia, Maryland. 02:03:05, 18 May 2009
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