Sedona, AZ

We woke up Monday morning with a view of three rock formations in Sedona, the middle one being Bell Rock.  It was a pretty view!

After a breakfast of pastries at a coffee shop, we headed to do a short hike.  Since the town was predicted to be super busy, taking a free shuttle was recommended.  We drove to one of the shuttle spots and figured out we were near Soldier's Pass Trail.  So that is the one we decided to hike.  After walking through a neighborhood, we got to the trailhead and began the hike to the 7 Sacred Pools.  It wasn't very far, about half a mile, but far enough for us.  

The sinkhole on the way to the pools

Only five of the Sacred Pools had water in them, and the water looked a lot different than the pictures online!

After our short hike, we went shopping at Tlaqupaque.  This was a recreated Mexican village that was full of cool stores and restaurants.  We were able to find some neat things to buy and then found a really good Mexican restaurant El Rincon.  The spinach queso was really good!  The only bad thing was we were too full to be able to order the sopapillas for dessert!

Because it was recommended, we went to uptown Sedona after Tlaquepaque.  This was definitely not our favorite spot.  It was so crowded and hot and the stores sold mainly cheap souvenirs.  The one good thing was that we were able to ask about and see Snoopy Rock.  Once you see it, it is so obvious.  But we had to have someone show it to us.

Snoopy is the small rock formation on the right.  It is him sleeping on his doghouse.

On the way back to the hotel, we stopped at Chapel of the Holy Cross.  It was a really pretty chapel.  Being Catholic, they had candles you could light for prayers, and you could feel the heat of all the candles as you walked in the chapel.

 

We had another good meal at Colt Grill followed by milkshakes at Rocky Ice Cream before we headed to the airport mesa for sunset.

After being super crowded all day because it was Memorial Day, we ended up being almost the only people at the hotel that night.  Guess everyone had headed home.  Just like we did on Tuesday.  We didn't have to leave too early, but we did have to be in Phoenix, 2 hours away, by 10:30.  On the drive, we were all getting texts about delayed flights.  Mine ended up being cancelled and rebooked at 5:00 that evening.  I was able to get it rebooked and ended up home around 1:00 in the morning.  Jenn and Ashton ended up on their flight to Dallas, but then stuck there.  They finally got a flight out of there, but also very late.  Until this day, due to super bad weather in Dallas, everything had run smoothly.  Getting home was definitely stressful, but much better than being stressful trying to get to Arizona.  

It was such a fun trip!  Very tiring, but full of great memories.  I am so glad I got to spend time with my sister and niece!  It was a trip that we will never forget!  Now to figure out where we want to hike next year!!