There are some places we have visited that lure us simply for their scenic beauty and promises of relaxation as they are off the beaten path. These can be places where there is not much to do-no exciting nightlife or man-made wonders. One such is Sedona, 125 miles North of Phoenix, Arizona.
Even though there is no exciting nightlife in Sedona there can be in Flagstaff which is maybe 30 miles North and it was Flagstaff that was the lure back in 1995 when we went to see a
Richard Wagner opera known commonly as "The Ring" which is 4 operas telling one gigantic story and takes 4 nights spread over a week to tell. Rather than stay in Flagstaff close to the theater we looked to Sedona as a more relaxing place to spend between evening opera performances. We've visited twice as we went back a few years later as the ending to one of our Las Vegas trips so photos will be from those two trips. As always we looked to TripAdvisor when researching places to stay and found a resort called
L'Auberge de Sedona.
They have cottages there down by a lazy creek loved by ducks and by us. They also have regular hotel rooms in the main building.
You can just see the creek in this next photo, down below our cottage.
The stone chimney means that, yes, we have a wood burning fireplace. We like to sit and read by a roaring fire in the evening or have dinner brought over from the high-end restaurant on the water's edge.
http://www.lauberge.com/dining/ Down here by the creek at night the only sound we would hear would be the crackling of the burning logs, the ticking of the clock and an occasional duck quack.
As some of you may know from reading some of my cruise reviews on Cruisecritic. com I recently suffered a robbery which sadly took my computer and hard drive storage from me and my photo collection dropped from 31,000 to 9,000 overnight. So a long drive to an American geographical icon called
Monument Valley is lost to me now-we drove from Flagstaff so that's why I mention it. Also missing is a bi-plane ride over the Red Rocks of Sedona which I had hoped to share with you. Sigh.
So this will be made up of the Sedona photos I am left with.
Eventually I am going to put down this newspaper and grab the camera and go exploring among the beautiful scenery.
Ok, I've read all the news that's fit to print, so let's go!
To get to the opera in Flagstaff night after night we rented a car. This came in handy to go exploring for although the mountains look really close from our cottage they are a few miles away over uneven land.
As you can see we have the place to ourselves as Sedona isn't a huge tourist magnet-one of the reasons why we love it.
This view is from the highest point in town-the airport where we once caught a bi-plane for a thrilling (but cold and noisy) aerial view of the valley. Later we'll take a helicopter flight and show you the photos.
Even when we turn our backs to the mountain for just a moment we are surrounded by wilderness. And peace. And quiet. There's only the sound of the cold rushing stream.
It's great weather for driving a convertible!
The twisting mountain roads are wide open.
I didn't have a camera back then that could take night shots which is a pity as Sedona is a "dark town" at night with minimal street lighting so that the residents have a starry sky to enjoy. Returning from Flagstaff at midnight down a twisty hairpin road that drops 2,000 feet in maybe 2 miles is a challenge. But it was fun!
More to come....
