Day 2. Tuesday.

On my “Grand” trip itinerary Tuesday was tagged as the day we would explore Sedona. In truth, all I really had planned was a late day (4pm-ish) couples massage followed by dinner at a nice restaurant.

The scenery and slightly warmer temperatures are probably at the top of the list of reasons why the city seems so busy and is also quite a bit more expensive to find a place to stay. I had considered booking a place in Sedona originally and the extra cost and extra drive time to the Grand Canyon are why I opted for Flagstaff.

When I booked the massage, the woman who took my call gave me some suggestions of areas to explore as we made our way from Flagstaff to Sedona down through the canyon on route 89A. The drive was amazingly beautiful, albeit a dizzying one. The switchbacks were some of the more intense I’ve experienced.

We stopped at Slide Rock State Park which is a paid spot. The guy at the gate made sure we knew the main activity there was a “swimming” one and not hiking. Swimming in quotes because very few people were actually in the water. Why? Because the water is a natural mountain stream flowing down over the rocks and it is COLD.

It’s called slide rock because the rocks are smoothed over boulders and you can actually slide down like a waterslide. I watched some kids doing it, and even an older woman who brought her own inner-tube. Classy. 😉

The entire park was cool to explore with some great vistas, but we definitely had the most fun walking into the water and taking some fun pics among the rocks. 

After we exhausted that bit of excitement, we made our way the rest of the way to Sedona to explore and have some lunch.

The place we ate was called the Hudson and it was a flight or two of stairs up, nestled on the side of a hill. Actually everything in Sedona is situated on a hill and the view in just about every direction is amazing.

We had a drink or two and ate at the bar. Jim had steak and I had a cheeseburger of course. It might have been the euphoria of the moment, but it was one of the best cheeseburgers I’ve had in my life.

It was actually a bison burger with white cheddar, bacon, and some sort of sauce, served with barbeque sauce and fries on the side. When Jim asked, I told him it was a 4.75. High marks indeed. I followed that by making sure he knew nobody gets a perfect 5. If it’s out there, I haven’t had it yet. 

Finishing lunch, it was time to make our way to the massage parlor across town. The tourist part of town runs all along 89A and is a hot mess of traffic all the time. Despite wonky directions from Google, we were able to find the place and find a place to park. 

The massage, as compared to the fun of Slide Rock and deliciousness of Hudsons, paled in comparison. But…. even a mediocre massage is a good massage! 

We were supposed to get dinner after that but we were both still full from lunch and a little too relaxed for fighting through traffic and crowds to find a place to eat so we basically got in our car and drove back up through the canyon to Flagstaff.

It was a pretty chill evening after that. A quick dip in the hot tub and we were both ready to call it a night. I think that’s it for Day 2. Another very satisfying day.

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner,

~Miss SugarCookie