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| Montezuma Castle |
The day started with William, Rhonda and I breakfasting in a cute little restaurant shop that specialized in breakfast dishes, you know, nifty omelettes and the like. For our short visit, I found Chandler Arizona is adorable with beautiful architecture. After lots of hugs and 'I'll miss you's, William and I headed... right into an inexplicable northward traffic jam. I was driving and the fun part was the slow traffic allowed lots of photo opts of the slowly passing window for William.
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| Gila Monster - Arizona has beautiful highway byways |
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| Parting is such sweet Saguaro.... HAHAHAHAHAA! |
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Note the hawk on the upper right saguaro...
My nephie birds! |
Took a couple of hours to arrive at our day's main stop: Montezuma Castle National Monument. The monument has nothing to do with Montezuma, as he was born after this impressive apartment complex (that's how I view it anyway) was completed. I visited this site years ago, but as I lost the scan disk that held the photos I took, I had to return, and this time I have good company for my visit.
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| Entrance view of the ancient Sinagua people's dwellings |
The dwelling is neither a castle, nor did it have anything to do with Montezuma, who was born after it was built. I love imagining what it would have been like to live in this impressive high rise; facing a good source of water - now called 'Beaver Creek' - safe up above from flooding and from any invaders. Just going down for your day's supply of water would have kept one and all healthy & fit. This was the Club Med for the first nation's peoples indeed.
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| River rock, limestone and adobe type mortar were the building materials |
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| A Ranger pointed out a hole up top of the cliffs and asked what we saw there... |
I looked with my binoculars and spotted what was up - a honey comb! There were residents in the old dwelling yet - honey bees! Yeesh... the look of honey combs squicks me out a bit.
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| There are other residences present nowadays too - Cliff Swallow nests |
Oh yeah, and the odd Rock Squirrel lives there too.
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| Sycamores shade the peaceful creek below the dwellings |
Along side the creek, the locals grew the 'three sisters', which are squash, corn and beans. And as 'locals' go, don't think the ancestors of the people who lived in the dwellings are long gone. Their descendants are still with us. There are local Hopi clans who have oral histories of their times on the cliffs. The Zuni once traded here, and the Yavapai bands also traveled here.
When William and I headed out for out next stop - Sedona, the sun was beginning its downward journey. It would take more than sundown though, to put any kind of a damper on the beauty of the hills around Sedona.
Sedona is a hoppin' town, jam packed with tourists, each driving, andeach, as we were, looking for parking. We pleaded with good St. Norma and we soon had a prime spot on the main drag.
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| Beautiful, downtown Sedona |
Loads of pretty things to admire and take a load of weight out of your wallet or exercise that charge card.
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| We missed no chance for a little fun |
But it had been a long time since breakfast so William and I started with dinner at a Mexican restaurant. Over dinner we snagged a hotel room - how easy travel can be in this century.
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| That's William over there, pondering the extensive menu |
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Yes.. we weren't going hungry and time soon...
And by the by, the entirety of this picture is only one meal... |
So that was our day, which ended with a nice room at the Hilton Double Tree. I only mention that because I was pleased to realize this was the same hotel I stayed at the last time I was in the area.
Run, run, as fast as you can, you can't stop me, I'm the Gingerbread chick!
That's not the way the nursery rhyme goes, is it?
