As evidenced by the pictures I've been posting all week, we spent the better part of it in Sedona, a city nestled among gorgeous red rocks about two hours north of Phoenix. It's been on our list of places to visit while living in Tucson and now that we've been there, I have no idea why it took us so long to get there! It was one of those vacations where we never felt like we had to go anywhere or do anything except relax. Unfortunately about an hour into our drive I realized I forgot to grab the camera bag with both cameras in it, so this vacation will go down in history as the one where all the pictures were taken on my camera phone.
On the way up we stopped at the Ikea store just south of Phoenix. I hadn't been there before, but I think I'm in love. The place was HUGE, and the hour and a half we spent there wasn't nearly enough time to even scrape the surface of what they have. Even though we didn't buy the entire contents of the store (like I wanted to), we did pick up a little table and chairs set for Ellie.
I had heart palpitations on the way home when we passed it because I wanted to stop. Brian had palpitations, too, although I suspect it was for completely different reasons.Our rental house for the week exceeded all our expectations. We had our own pool, hot tub, kitchen and the house was close to everything and was surrounded by spectacular views of the rocks. As soon as we unloaded the car we jumped into the pool!
Ellie couldn't get enough of the pool. Every day she would get all excited when we would get her suit on and lather her with sunscreen.
Is there anything better than a naked baby on vacation?
We were lucky to find our favorite restaurant in Sedona the first night we were in town -- Wildflower Bread Company, but I'm so disappointed that they have no locations here in Tucson. Being huge Panera Bread fans, we thought Wildflower blew Panera out of the water! We went back no less than four times in the four days we were there. They also had great views from their patio.
And not just the red rocks. :)
While we didn't feel the need on this vacation to do anything, we did take in some of the popular sights.
The Chapel of the Holy Cross.
Airport Mesa.
We also attempted to hike Cathedral Rock...
...but realized we could only go so far with Ellie on Brian's back.
In the evenings after Ellie went down for the night (I should mention that she slept very well on this trip), Brian and I would sit out by the pool and enjoy the sunset and stars.
Despite rising temperatures during the day, we enjoyed a picnic under the shade at one of the local parks. There were a few dogs there, much to Ellie's delight.
The park also had a playground named after Ellie! (well, not really)
We did lots of walking.
More swimming.
People watching at Wildflower (so our child).
All that walking, swimming and people watching makes for one tired girl.
After a relaxing trip we reluctantly left our little slice of paradise and started the drive back to Tucson, stopping in Jerome along the way.
It was a great trip, probably the best since we had Ellie!
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