Jerome - An Old Mining Town

We took a walk-about tour today in the old mining town of Jerome nestled in the top of the Black Mountains not far from Sedona. They mined copper, silver and gold. It is no longer a mining town. It was taken over by hippies who are now the realtors! There are acres of slag down in Clarkdale near the old smelter. Someone took a core sample and found that you can still get 1/4 oz of gold from a ton of slag making that slag pile worth alot!


The pink house is for sale for $165,000 but has to be restored to the way it was - the foundation is cracked and the house looks like it might slide down the hill like the town jail did!

We ate lunch at the Grand Hotel at the top of the town. The hotel used to be a hospital and the restaurant is called The Assylum as the room used to be the hospital assylum. It had a great view looking over the town of Jerome and the valley out to the Mogollon Rim. This restaurant is famous for it's butternut soup, so of course we had to try it. It had a lot of cinnamon and some jalapeno in it - very different but delicious. Doesn't it look fancy!

"I'm a Traveling Man"

Mike and I got up early to drive up north of Flagstaff to visit the Wupatki Ruins and drive by Sunset Crater and then head up to the Grand Canyon via the east entrance.

We saw 7 ruins at Wupatki and they were very interesting. The largest ruin is the wupatki ruin. It had a kiva and a ball court and a blowhole (a whole into the earth that blows out air or sucks it in depending on the atmospheric pressure). Typical of me, I took enough pictures of the ruins and all the signs that if anyone needs to do a 4th grade report on Native Americans, I have lots of material!!!

Sunset Crater was covered with lava and all the nearby mountains were also covered with lava flow. We decided to take a labeled hike at the base of Sunset crater. All of a sudden we found ourselves in snow and it was difficult to know where the trail was! But we had a nice hike and enjoyed learning about the crater.

The Grand Canyon was exactly that -GRAND! We enjoyed pulling off at all the viewpoints and were in awe of God's creations. We got there in the mid afternoon and enjoyed the sun setting on the North Rim as we looked from the South Rim. We had a lovely dinner at the famed El Tovar Hotel there in the Grand Canyon Park. After dinner we discovered 7 deer grazing on the grass in front of the hotel. On our way back to Sedona, in the dark and snow covered mountainsides (the road was clear), we stopped just short of hitting what we think was a big old male elk. A great day.

Red Rocks in Sedona

Mike and I are here in Sedona on vacation! Today we went out to Palatki Ruin. We drove on a dirt road for 7 miles (bump, bump, bump) to get there. It was a short hike up the hillside to the ruins on the cliff. Wow! We were able to go in the rooms and get a good view of what it was like. You'd have to be pretty short (shorter than me) to stand up in any of the rooms. We could see where the poles had come out of the walls for the second floor. Small rooms and short. We also saw a lot of petroglyphs nearby. That was great! And we drove by lots of brilliant colored rock buttes and formations. I'll include a couple of pictures here. By the way, the weather is great. A little chilly in the am and pm but great hiking weather during the day.

She'll be coming around the mountain

The chapel in Sedona is located on a road named, Mormon Hill. It is a nice little chapel (not full size) and the people were very friendly. They announced that visitors were welcomed to share their testimonies as we made up 70% of the attendance. The funny thing was that a couple we know from El Cajon Stake, came and sat down right by us, and they are staying in the same time share. They gave us a heads up on what to see since they come here often. After church we drove up Oak Creek Canyon and saw beautiful country. At the upper elevation there was snow on the ground. We stopped at a lookout where there was snow and ice and a cold, chilly wind! We drove on into Flagstaff and visited with a former roommate I haven't seen in decades. Check out the license plate on this truck we pulled behind in Flagstaff. Dad recognized the initials right off and then I noted the correct year! On the way back into Sedona we pulled over at some view points and awed at the beautiful scenery. Here are a couple of pictures from today.

Baby, It's cold outside

I just read Mary's blog about it being cold, very cold. And I think how glad I am that we have such mild weather here! And here is a first! Driving home from celebrating Chinese New Year at a local restaurant (thanks Mother!), Mike was shivering and turned up the heater. I was talking with Jack and Tamara on the cell when all of a sudden I was burning up! Mike had the heater on full blast. I don't think I've ever before asked him to turn down the car heater! I'm the one who's always waiting til he's not looking while he's driving to turn it up higher. And the low's are in the 40s. Mild winters! Hurrah.

Creative solutions

We live in a family where everyone has a great idea for creative solutions to problems. So, this evening, I've been sitting in my favorite (new since the flood) Lazy Boy recliner with my feet up and my laptop (computer) on my laptop catching up on blog reading (I am way behind since Thanksgiving). The laptop was getting my lap hotter and hotter and hotter (which is not unusual). So, Mike, sitting in his matching (but larger) lazy boy next to me, came up with a great creative solution to my hot lap. He reached over and grabbed the empty arhu (Chinese instrument I bought on our China trip - never played) box and placed it across the two arms of the lazy boy. Voila! The laptop is well supported up high and my lap is staying cool. Only a new dilemma - the cat won't jump up on the chair arms with the box there - she actually jumped up on Mike's chair and he's low on her pecking order. Oh well: cool lap or cool cat!

Down at the WAP

This is the Wild Animal Park's last Christmas for "Festival of Lights." We didn't want to miss it (since we have missed it for who knows how many years, but we used to go every year)! So we met Jocelyn there for an afternoon and evening of park delights. I love the lion camp. Currently they have 8 lion cubs (at age 13 months) lounging, leaping, licking, frolicking, boxing all over their open enclosure. The cheetahs appear at dusk so we enjoyed them as well. After our safari tour around the back enclosures, we enjoyed wandering around looking at the lights. A good time with family.