Babymoon - Phase Two

After our remarkable day + at the Grand Canyon, Dan and I drove a couple hours down to Sedona. I think we could have happily stayed another couple days at the GC, but when we were planning our trip I thought, "Once you've seen one hole in the ground, you've seen them all." Not true. Now I know that there is at least one hole in the ground that I'll be happy to visit again!

Phase Two: Red Rocks
We entered Sedona in the pitch black of night, so I was unprepared to wake up the next morning to one of the most beautiful places I've ever been. Our B&B had a view of the giant red rocks surrounding the city. I poked Dan out of bed to make him see the sunrise. Then we had a fantastic breakfast and went down to the labyrinth built on the grounds of the B&B.


Sedona is a place which claims to be full of "energy vortexes," and so forth. I'm not totally sure what an energy vortex is, but I think I could translate it into "places you can go which are so awesomely beautiful you cannot help but be inspired." It is also a place full of new age items for sale: aura-readings, dream-catchers, magnets, crystal acupressure, etc. We passed on those things, but did try to hunt down the "energy vortexes" and took our turn at the labyrinth. Here I am trying my hand at meditating in the labyrinth, with the help of a yoga pose (my balance is a little off).


After doing some birding at the B&B, we headed off in our rental car to visit the surrounding area. The kind people at Budget Rent-a-Car in Flagstaff had given us a free upgrade from the economy sized car we had ordered to a Subaru Outback. If they had known how much off-road driving that would inspire us to do, they may not have been so generous! One afternoon we took it up a road so rough, that the only other cars on it were the jeep tours (these are very popular for some reason), and some monster trucks. The Subaru did great, but I spent the whole time trying to remember whether shaking violently for an hour and a half was on the list of things to avoid while pregnant...


The last two nights we stayed at an absolutely lovely place called "Canyon Wren: Cabins for Two." These were little luxury (had a bathtub) individual cabins situated about 6 miles from town, up a canyon near a little creek. The owners were huge birders and had massive bird feeders set up all around their property, so Dan was able to go birding right from our balcony! Unfortunately , the "cabins for two" means we probably won't make it back to this particular place any time soon... but we highly recommend it for all of you who don't have kids yet or whose kids are old enough to leave behind.


Just up the road from the Canyon Wren cabins was a fantastic hike called "west fork." This hike was relatively flat, meandering along a little river surrounded by giant red cliffs. It involved many river crossings of which I am proud to report that I did without falling into the water, or dropping a camera into the water, not even once. It was a busy trail which solicited many comments on my giant river-crossing belly. We made it about three miles in and three back, slowly, which was about the extent of my current hiking capabilities. Fortunately, Dan's photographing-hiking speed, and my pregnant-hiking speed, turned out to be the same!

If you've made it this far into this excruciatingly long blog (I imagine this sort of perseverance belongs only to our mothers), have hope, I'm almost done. Only a few other highlights worth mentioning.

We ate at a place called "Silver Saddle," a fancy cowboy restaurant in downtown Sedona. Dan had eaten there about 15 years earlier, and still remembered a remarkable buffalo steak that he had eaten. He got the buffalo steak again, and claimed it was so delicious, I'm sure he'll remember it for another 15 years!

We did a brief hike towards Cathedral Rock, one of those energy vortexes I'd mentioned earlier. It was beautiful, but very popular - including a tourbus worth of asians dotting the river all along our hike.


We also visited the Chapel of the Holy Cross, a tiny chapel built into the rocks. Dan got some fantastic photos. To see these and other photos, start here and work your way towards the end of the babymoon album. I know there's a lot, but remember that we sorted through thousands to narrow it down to these ones!

We finally made it home with only a few souvenirs: a metal water bottle from the grand canyon, over 1000 photos, and a terrible cold that I'm just now finally recovering from. All in all I would give this vacation 10 stars!