Why does 40 sound so much older than 39?
Craig and I celebrated my big birthday in Sedona, AZ. We flew to Phoenix and drove on up to Sedona last Friday. We stopped along the way at a little small town diner for lunch...
(not quite sure what was Amish about the place other than two girls wearing white caps and long dark dresses)
...then checked out the Indian ruins a little farther up the highway called Montezuma's Castle.
Part of the draw to Sedona was their half marathon on Saturday, Feb. 12th, so after checking into the Hilton, we went into town to pick up our race packets and drive the course. We had our best meal of the trip that night at Barking Frog. (There really are barking frogs, we found out from reading the back of the menu.)
Saturday morning we were up and out early for the race. It was very cold, maybe 30 degrees or so. They staggered the start, so the marathoners were off about 8:00, then us half marathoners around 8:20, then the 10Kers, then the 5Kers (I'm still confused about why anyone would pay money to run 3 miles).
The first half mile or so was tough; I felt like I couldn't suck in enough air. But by mile one I was adjusted to the altitude (4500 feet, compared to my normal 200 feet here at the beach). Craig and I were running together, but at about a mile and a half, Craig told me to go on ahead without him. He's been nursing tendonitis in his right Achilles and probably shouldn't have been running yet. So I went on alone. I figured he would walk back to the start/finish and wait for me there. It was an absolutely beautiful course and once the sun came out, it warmed right up.
The course double backed on itself, so at about mile 8, I was surprised to see Craig running towards me. I was so happy to see him going for it. Even with starting the race with Craig, I came in with my second best half marathon time. And I finished 10 out of 42 in my class. Of course, if the race had been 3 days later (today), I would have been in a completely different class all together. I think that is a good thing - I am now in the youngest part of my new age bracket. Craig finished about 37 minutes after me. And his Achilles hurt him the rest of the trip. There were massage therapist on site at the end of the race giving 10 minute massages for free so we did that. Then, after lunch at a little place near our hotel, we scheduled massages at the Hilton Spa for the evening. I tried the stone massage for the first time, which I really enjoyed. We then went to dinner at Cucina Rustica, which was excellent Italian food with great service. I don't think running 13 miles quite justified the amount of good food I ate on this trip, but it certainly was delicious!
Sunday, we went to church at the Sedona ward for sacrament meeting, then checked out some more Indian Ruins - Palatki and Honanki. The guides from the forestry service who worked there were very informative. It's amazing to think about the ancient people who lived in these cliff dwellings nearly a thousand years ago.
Monday morning started with a sunrise hot air balloon ride over the Sedona valley and red rocks, a first for both Craig and me.
The tragedy in this is that we had taken the battery out of our nice camera in order to charge it the night before, realized we'd brought the wrong battery charger, then forgot to put the battery back in the camera with the little juice it had left. So we took these pictures with our little Olympus. Fortunately, there was a really nice man from Canada in our quarter of the basket with us who was shooting pictures with his nice Canon, and he took our information and is going to send us a disc of the pictures he took.
We ended Valentine's Day with yet another great meal at Shugrue's.
We've come to the conclusion that Sedona has the best servers we've ever come across. We had the friendliest, most attentive service at all three of these restaurants we ate dinner at. We didn't pick the best places for lunch, but our balloon pilot told us of a few places to try should we ever venture back to Sedona. Because of Craig's Achilles problem, we didn't get to do any hiking which is my only regret about the trip. So we may head back there again someday. I give Sedona two thumbs way up and recommend it to anyone looking for a beautiful, outdoorsy place to vacation. Great food, lots to do and see... fantastic for couples, families, and friends. I could help you plan a great trip.
And of course, if you are interested in crystals, psychic readings and aura photography, this is the place for you too. Dreadlocks and Birkenstocks welcome!
