Sedona Day Trip, Part 2

Alright, where did I leave off from my earlier post about our day trip to Sedona…?

Oh that’s right, the caves!

At this point in the day, it was getting so hot and we were so sweaty, that it was time for a clothing and scenery change! Luckily the caves had restrooms and potable water, despite being out in the middle of nowhere.

Originally I wanted to get in some wine tasting, since Page Springs is one of the largest wine grape-growing regions in Arizona. I mean, the lead singer of Tool/A Perfect Circle even has a winery out here called Caduces Cellars! How rad is that?!

But alas, it would have been a 25-mile drive in the opposite direction and we only had a few hours of daylight left to enjoy downtown Sedona.

So we went to the shopping district and enjoyed frozen treats!

It was at this point we heard talk about this famous “Snoopy Rock” which you can kind of see in the background. I’ll get to that later.

By this point, I was pretty full. I couldn’t even finish mint Heath bar ice cream. But did that stop me from wanting to go into the wine tasting room?

Heck no. I’m the daughter of a wine-maker, I take it upon myself to try wines of various different regions!

We split a $15, 6-wine flight tasting of regional chilled wines. The guy who worked there was really nice and he had a cute dog. It didn’t get awkward until he told me he was my dad’s age and then started hitting on me. At least the wines were good… whatever helps sell your product.

Despite never having heard of it before, I really enjoyed the white merlot but we ended up leaving with a bottle of the house-made Page Springs Peach. Weird, huh? It was tasty and refreshing. I was also sorta bummed they were out of the sparkling wine! It was the only one I really wanted to try.

Once the wine was nestled safely into the car, it was time to explore the shopping area.

It was cute and picturesque – and also sort of weird. You see, Sedona claims to be a mix of hippies and artists. To me, it seemed like the hub of New Age activity. Or maybe that’s Santa Cruz. But the local merchants were all trying to sell “healing crystals” and everyone was trying to make a profit off the local energy “vortexes” vortices? I took geometry and I still don’t remember what the plural is. That’s why I have a Bachelor of Arts, my friends. Who only took one science class (astronomy) in college?! This chick. Anyways, if you want to read about the energy vortexes (I never saw one, so I won’t waste space here), check out this link.

If I had any money and more time though, I’d totally eat it up.

PINK JEEP TOURS!!!

What’s so special about a pink jeep tour, you ask?

I have no clue. But everyone and their mom was taking them. I totally want to do it next time!

Playing tourists, we walked around from shop to shop and got a good look at Snoopy Rock (whoa, was that in some kind of rhyming meter?!).

See the resemblance?! I had to buy a magnet, you know, for Woodstock’s sake. Next time I want to get a picture of Woody in front of it!

After the sightseeing and playing tourist, I wanted to check out a local Arts & Crafts village, but it had closed down for the evening. Only restaurants and coffee shops were still open past 5 p.m. on a Tuesday on the first day of summer.

Instead, we explored the village and got some neat pictures. It seriously reminded me of Europe (Spain in particular), or I imagine nicer parts of Mexico?

Before leaving the area, we had one final stop to make: Javelina Cantina! Someone recommended their margaritas as the best in town. I was sold.

The seating area was really cute and quite busy for a weekday night. But the staff was efficient and tables were turning over quickly. We didn’t even have to wait to sit, despite a party of 30 on the balcony. The bar was also jam-packed. Perhaps everyone heard the same thing about margaritas that I did.

With views like this, no wonder it was so busy.

Before long, chips and salsa came to our table and I found myself easily talked into the prickly pear margarita (one of my favorite drinks since moving here to Arizona). This one probably takes the cake. It was the biggest, most flavorful and still very salty/tequila-y margarita I’ve had in Arizona.

Quite refreshing – and necessary – in the near 100 degree evening. When the food arrived, I settled on a salmon tostada and J.D. ordered sizzling shrimp fajitas.

The food was beautiful, fresh (for having an ocean four hours west, it was impressive!) and actually included a lot of produce. The portions were huge, too, and we each boxed up our dinners for lunch the following day.

If you come to Arizona, definitely take the time to see Sedona, go to Javelina and get a margarita! Oh yeah, and don’t forget to see these javelinas either ;)

(I’ve yet to see one in my life. They’re hideous creatures. But not too bad in pink, don’t you agree?)

Next time I want to go back to Page Springs and do the winery circuit! And maybe make stops in Flagstaff or Prescott. Since, this is technically my summer “vacation.”

Week 25: Visit Sedona

While I’ve never in my life been to the Grand Canyon, living in Arizona is a step closer in that direction. However, it’s still a 3-to-4 hour drive from our house in the Phoenix area. So on Tuesday, we entertained the idea of waking up at the crack of dawn and driving up to the Canyon.

…Instead we got up around 7ish and were able to drive north and make it to Sedona around 10 a.m. (another place I’ve never been).

It turned out to be quite cooler up in Sedona, with temperatures hitting 112 in Phoenix, but only 91 in Sedona. After doing a lot of research on the area, I wanted to start out the day with a hike at Red Rock National Park.

With little to no cell phone service, the step-by-step GPS directions I pulled from websites turned out to be a life saver! The views were beautiful, and there was tons of red sand all around, painting the canyons and mountains.

After 1.81 miles (which turned out to be a 45-minute hike in the beating sun), we decided to call it quits with the hiking and headed back to the car for lunch. We brought an ice chest and it hung out in the trunk during our hike.

Hungry and hot, we found a picnic table in the shade and ate quinoa & black bean salad, coconut water/Powerade, chocolate chip cookie Larabars, apples and carrots. Oh yeah and we had amazing views still!

After lunch, we drove a few miles down a dusty trail to the Palatki Heritage Site – a national preserve with Native American ruins and cave paintings! I don’t think I’ve ever seen preserved cave paintings, or any cave paintings really, before. It was a really neat experience and we learned a great deal about the history of Arizona and its indigenous people.

If you look closely, you can see the ruins up in the cliff above. They have carbon dated it back to the 11th or 12th century, and it was abandoned in the 13th century due to a massive drought in the valley. Apparently that was the transition from nomadic tribes hunting and wandering through the area, to staying permanently as farming developed here.

So it was quite a contrast to see the cave paintings, which have been left by many different nomadic tribes, dating back to the last 100 years. The different colored paints denote the different tribes that have left their mark. The government has declared this an official historical site and will not remove any paintings 50 years or older -- all carbon dated for authenticity.

Apparently these are some of the best preserved ruins and cave paintings in the state! It was really amazing, we spent over two hours at these two sites. If you have something similar near you, I highly recommend that you go and check it out. It was totally mind blowing!

Me in the caves!

And that was only the first half of our day trip. So, while it wasn’t my original intention, this is going to be a two-part post :) I literally took hundreds of pictures and can’t wait to show you the rest.

Stay tuned for Part 2, but until then, I’m going to share with you the song that was stuck in my head during the entire first half of the morning, haha. I love this album and this song, so enjoy!

(Side note: This song is apparently about Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, which I recently read about in the book Sophie’s World. I read excerpts from that book in high school and have been looking for it ever since. I recently stumbled across it at a used book store and if you’re interested in learning about a general survey of world philosophy, you should certainly look into it! However, it does get quite heavy towards the end and I semi found myself at some form of existential crossroads after reading. It’s stuck with me almost a month after finishing it.)

Week 13: Hiked Camelback with a friend from high school

Every week in 2011, for 52-straight weeks, I hope to try something new and blog about it here. This is the 13th post in the series, when I climbed Camelback Mountain in Scottsdale/Phoenix with my best friend from high school. Here you will find a list of all my weekly adventures thus far.

The month of March was CRAZY (fun) at my house. We had five groups of friends/family visit Arizona which meant something to do and entertaining to be had every single week. This was literally 0-to-60 for me, as I barely know anyone in the entire state of Arizona and being jobless for so long meant hardly ever going out.

Looks like April will be more of the same old story ;) But it was nice to have visitors, see old friends, family and be active and adventurous out here. Most recently, my best friend from high school, Laura, flew out as our final visitor in March. We hadn't seen each other since her wedding in 2009.

Her visit began with this week's new thing on Wednesday at noon. I have never hiked Camelback Mountain in Phoenix before! It's hailed as one of the top urban hiking trails in the country, as a grueling climb just minutes from the sixth-largest metropolitan area in the United States.

(Source)

I'm not lying when I say it's a grueling hike. At some points we were completely vertical, without a trail, jumping from rock-to-rock, using only a handrail or a fence for support. My knee is still a mess from my running injury last summer, so I was smart enough to have to foresight to wear my knee brace. Without it, I don't think I could have made it.

Funny story though, we didn't actually make it... This week has been one of the hottest on record in Phoenix. It actually hit 100° yesterday. I'm sure you can imagine, then, how warm it was at 12 p.m. hiking a 3 mile round trip mountainous trail. In fact, the combination of our lungs, limbs and only two water bottles between us did us in. We made it about a third of the way up the mountain before heading back. It took around 45 minutes to do the mile trek, with a slight glimpse of the summit. I wouldn't change a thing! Catching up with an old friend while laughing at the older men and children (some with dogs) who sprinted past us really made for a fun start to her trip. Clearly I'm not acclimated to the desert yet, and I've only lived here eight months. I do plan to go back to Camelback sometime in the very near future to finish what I started....As long as I'm out by 6 a.m. and NOT the late morning/early afternoon. I think I'll also need to invest in a Camelbak (ha, no pun intended, but that was awesome) for serious hydration with temperatures in the 80s/90s here to stay and get hotter.

(Source)

Laura also took me on another first trip: thrift shopping! I fell in love (as you can imagine on my limited budget) and will definitely do that in favor of mall/department store shopping from here on out. Details to come in a future post :)

In the meantime, I present to you: MONIQUE & LAURA'S AWESOME CAMELBACK ADVENTURE

View from the first tier just to get up to the mountain trail

Smiling because I had no idea what more lay ahead...

Plane to mountain in under 20 minutes, go Laura!

Last part of the hike we were able to do

Uncharted territory. I WILL return to tackle you, Camelback.

Funny how we literally were twins and didn't even plan it! She packed that outfit for the plane and I rolled out of bed and threw on some dry fit clothing :)

We joked about snapping a photo at our most gassed point in the hike, in full sunlight, out of water and peanut butter sandwiches and sweating out of control. Clearly, I've spared you all of such a photo (it doesn't even exist, btw). After, we treated ourselves to some window shopping in Downtown Scottsdale and an old fashioned soda shop treat (the orange raft J.D. and I shared when we first moved here). It was sooooooo awesome to hang out with one of my best childhood friends this week! I'm a little sad to return to an empty house again. But happy for the wonderful month we've had in March. Sooooo, if you're thinking about heading to Arizona, come visit! I love entertaining friends and family!

Also, I just discovered this cover recently and can't wait to share it. It's no secret how much I love Katy Perry. And she looks so cute in this video :) Enjoy the rest of your weekend, xx!

Katy Perry: Hackensack
- Watch more Entertainment Videos at Vodpod.

Week 12: Exploring the Phoenix Zoo

You're all so encouraging! Since my last post, I've decided to go ahead and accept my grad school/TA offer! Beginning in August, I'll be back in school again, while still working in baseball :) With that, we'll head into last week's "new thing."

Previously, I had never been to the Phoenix Zoo. Nor had my parents (who were also in town over the weekend). After catching a few Spring Training baseball games, I noticed the backs of the A's tickets offered a discount for zoo admission. With nothing on the agenda for Sunday, we ventured out and explored Phoenix. After my morning shift at work, my dad wanted to try a bar/restaurant that was noted in a local magazine as one of the area's top 50 bars to visit.

This place was a total throwback to decades past. Not only did it feature a boxing ring, military surplus shopping, soda fountain and a vintage Airstream trailer that doubled as a kitchen, but there was also a full menu for brunch, lunch, dinner and an array of "vintage cocktails and beer."

While we waited for our lunch to come hot out of the Airstream, we could choose from a pile of vintage (notice a theme here?) board games to pass away the time. My dad grabbed Scrabble, we chose a shaded table in the sunlight and enjoyed the afternoon.

(I won, in case you were curious)

Scrabble is serious business.

I don't know how many times I need to tell you people how much I adore vintage culture and the 1950s, but this really hit it out of the park. The Duce was probably one of the best finds in Phoenix thus far! And we've been to some really cool places in the past eight months. I bet it's crazy fun in the evenings and for happy hour as well. The best part is this is blocks away from my work ;) Needless to say, I will be back. If you're ever in Phoenix you HAVE to go there!

Pleasantly surprised with our afternoon at The Duce, we set off to use those Zoo discount tickets and spend the three hours until closing looking at all the animals.

I loveeeee animals and enjoy going to zoos and water parks, etc. The Phoenix Zoo is supposedly one of the top five zoos in the country and I would completely agree. I've been to zoos in about half the States and even in Europe. The best part about this one was the monkey exhibit.

You literally are in the monkey habitat and they ran past our feet and jumped from tree-to-tree overhead. It was one of the coolest things I've seen in a long time.

Other things I thought were neat:

• I finally got to see Black Swan

• We were face-to-painted face with some baboons (who, apparently, have rainbow-colored hineys, I missed the opportunity to snap a photo of that one)

• Witnessed a domestic dispute between two rhinos. That was intense.

• Speaking of domestic issues, we got to hear a male and female lion roaring at one another. It's crazy how loud that is! The lioness even rumbled and shook a little every time she yelped.

• I watched a really big kitty bathe itself

• I crossed paths with some peacocks. They were everywhere, I even had to wait in line behind one of them at a soda vending machine.

Is it weird I had the following song stuck in my head the entire time?! (Disclaimer, while I LOVE Katy Perry, I do think this is the weakest song on her Teenage Dream album)

• Met a rude lizard (dragon, whatever)

• And beat a golden eagle in a staring contest. It was like taking candy from a baby.

In all seriousness though, it was a really fun way to end the weekend! I had such a blast. I'm glad I'm challenging myself to try something new each week, or else I might have missed out on a great day! Now I'm off to brainstorm what to do this week...