Going North and Higher

Earlier this month we took a trip to Flagstaff. The purpose was to try and escape the heat at home. It was warm in town but we did find a place to actually be outside and cool. We rode the Arizona Gondola at Snowbowl to the top of the mountain. We found some chairs and just sat for nearly an hour enjoying the view and the cool mountain breezes. It felt so good!

During our trip we stayed at Twin Arrows Hotel and Casino which is actually about 20 minutes east of Flagstaff on I 40. The rooms were clean and nice. The casino let Jim come out ahead. The restaurants at the hotel were okay but Flagstaff wasn't far away, and we had some of our meals in town while being tourists. The lobby was beautiful, and I enjoyed quiet moments there while waiting for Jim to meet me.

How has your summer been so far? Are you somewhere that has had problems with extreme heat? If so, I recommend you find the easiest way you can to get to a breezy mountain top if only for a little while. It was so worth it for me.

Back with more again soon.

Take care and stay cozy!

The Long Way Home

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I hope you all had a pleasant weekend. I know I did. On Friday after Jim got off work we went to Payson and spent the night. Leaving Payson on Saturday we did something that is not so unusual for us. We decided to follow a road and just see where we ended up. Going north on the Beeline Highway (Highway 87) I lost track of how many climates we went through. The highest sign I remember was about 7500 feet elevation. It was beautiful among the pine trees. Going down toward I-40 we reentered desert and drove towards Flagstaff.

Along the way I saw the sign for the impact crater. Just because it was one of our wandering around to see what we can see, take the long way home trips we decided to stop. You can take a guided walk along the rim and learn more about what happened here. The walk is about 1 mile total and only goes part of the way around. If you go you will want to wear closed shoes for the gravel path and forget about your hair because it is usually windy.

After leaving there we went to the junction of I-17 and headed south. That really isn't such a pretty way to come back into Phoenix so we cut across on highway 260 back to Payson, had dinner at a Mexican restaurant and came the rest of the way home. You can see on the map the trip we took. We left Payson before noon and got home about 7:30 that evening.
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Sunday was a nice quiet day. I got Jim to help me hang some curtains. He did some yard work. We actually watched a movies without going to sleep. We grilled some turkey burgers and had them with sweet potato fries. How is that for a summer time version of Thanksgiving?