Photo Friday: I Went From Phoenix, Arizona All the Way To Sedona

My husband and I, along with Middle Child, enjoyed a trip out west to visit some old favorites as well as see some new sights. We had the best time! As I took about a hundred photos, I'm going to divide the trip into three parts. Here is part one: 

After flying into Phoenix and picking up the car rental, we drove to Coconut's for lunch. My husband and I have been raving about the fish tacos we had in Maui for the past nine years and Coconuts has two locations in Arizona. Otherwise, you have to fly to Maui. Yes, they were as good as we remembered, though maybe a bit smaller.

Then we headed to Montezuma Castle National Monument. It's a five-story, 20 room cliff dwelling built 100 feet above the valley and occupied sometime between 1100-1300 AD by Southern Sinagua indigenous people. Very cool to see!

It is believed that later tribes occupied the caves that are closer to the ground.

Afterwards, we continued north . . .

This was my third time visiting Sedona and honestly, you forget how magnificent it is! Imagine driving and seeing Bell Rock straight ahead. It's truly breathtaking.

Friends of ours recommended that we stay at Sky Ranch Lodge and it ended up being one of my most favorite places I've stayed anywhere. There are 94 rooms spread out between multiple buildings, all either one or two stories. Each room has a front door and either a patio or deck door that looked out onto various desert gardens. They host weddings on the weekends and while we were there, a couple named Wyatt and Sedona were married. The backdrop for the ceremony is stunning.

Instead of a restaurant or bar, there is this Airstream trailer that has breakfast and happy hour.

We enjoyed our breakfast each morning with this as the view.

The lodge is situated next to Airport Mesa, a popular Sedona sunset lookout.

While there were probably 75 people at the lookout each night, we had this private viewing on the lodge property.

Desert sunsets are spectacular!

We visited Chapel of the Holy Cross. This is the outside of the chapel, taken from below.

View from atop, outside the chapel.

We arrived when the gates opened at 8:45 AM, so I was lucky to get this shot before it became crowded. Several million people visit every year. The moment I stepped inside, I got all choked up. Pictures do not do it justice.

There is a spot where you can stand to the left of the altar to see Jesus looking down on you. Afterwards, I asked my husband if his eyes filled with tears and he said the same feeling came over him. It was either the Holy Spirt or the vortex!

We drove the Red Rock Loop twice. No words, just pictures . . .

A person with a lot of money to waste built this house. It's called Red Tail Cliff (I looked it up) and those wires are for the tram the family has to take to reach the home.

You know we had to visit some wineries on the trip. This was Alcantara. We enjoyed a flight overlooking the vineyard.

We also visited Page Springs.

For dinner one night, we were able to walk to the famous Mesa Grill from the lodge. The restaurant is located at the very small Sedona airport. The back of the restaurant is all windows, overlooking the red rocks and the short runway. We only saw one private plane take off.

We had a unique appetizer: eggplant meatballs. They were good, but the Swedish farm cheese (new to us) skewer was fabulous. I had the blackened salmon Caesar salad, which was very good.

Another beautiful sunset.

On our final morning, we watched the sunrise cast its glow on Airport Mesa.

Then we hit the road for our next adventure.

Is there a menu item you still talk about, years later? Favorite sunset location?

Part 2 (hopefully) next week! If I haven't caught up with you yet, expect me soon.