Saturday, May 28, 2011

loving life in sedona!

It’s been fun to explore so many places that I’ve heard about for years and have wanted to see. Sedona’s another of those places and we’ve been enjoying our time here. (I was here as a young kid, but have no memories of that trip.) We found a wonderful campground right beside Oak Creek with big trees and lots of shade and some HUGE blue heron nests. There are baby herons chirping constantly and big adult birds flying around. The kids are enjoying watching them and getting a closer look at these majestic birds.

A few days ago we spent an afternoon at Slide Rock State Park, swimming and enjoying this natural wonder. It’s a natural waterslide carved into the red slick-rock surface of Oak Creek Canyon. Most of us found the water pretty cold, but Zara was in there having fun for hours! She and John jumped off some small cliffs a few times. Zara had no fear or hesitation about jumping. Other people went up there and hemmed and hawed, but Zara didn’t even count to three! She just launched into the cold water below! (I haven’t downloaded these photos from John’s camera yet, so will post Slide Rock pics soon.)

On our walk out of the park, we watched some teenagers jumping off some MUCH higher cliffs into the canyon lower down. These cliffs were at least 60’ high and Zara asked “Can I do that Mom?” No way Zara! Maybe when you’re their age!

It’s been nice to have some relaxing days here. It’s worked well so far to have a few days where we travel long hours and cover lots of ground, then find a place we want to stay and settle in for a bit before doing it again. We were only going to stay here until Friday, as it’s a long weekend in the USA and everything was booked up. But when I went into the office to pay for Thursday night, the woman at the desk was just getting off the phone with someone who had called to cancel their weekend reservation. There was a wait list for the site, but since I was standing right there, they gave it to us! I love the way the universe looks out for us like that!


So we’ve had some good down time. The kids are enjoying playing with their toys, and making friends with other kids. Zara is loving having some young girls to play with.


 It was quite a novelty to walk some dogs this morning. (Some of our neighbors are travelling with SIX little dogs! Can you even imagine?!?!?)


Yesterday we did a little sight seeing and saw some of the "prehistoric" buildings of one of the Native American tribes that inhabited this area from about 1000 - 1400 AD.


This was at the Tuzigut national monuement - remnants of a pueblo built about 1000AD. Some interesting history.  Thor refused to walk anywhere yesterday! It was HOT and he just didn't want to walk in the heat. Bella was happy walking as long as she could take photos!




Montezuma's Castle was very cool. Even Thor thought so! This is a dwelling built into the side of a cliff. Zara enjoyed reading the interpretive signs, we watched lizards and imagined what life must have been like back then.



As much as we're enjoying Sedona itself, we have almost had our fill of the desert! It's HOT and dry! The ocean is calling us.... loudly!

One more photo of the gorgeous red rocks in the area. It is definitely beautiful!

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