Sedona Girls Trip

I flew off to Sedona with my friend to attend a seminal on “breaking inner blocks” with a popular hypnotherapist. We expected nothing less than life changing insights and personal transformation, at least for one of us!

We flew on US Airways from LAX to Phoenix, then Phoenix to Flagstaff, arriving at 12:30 pm. These flights, especially the last leg, were delightful and even fun! Our small jet was very empty and everybody had their own row with a window full of red rocks and majestic mountains. It was the most enjoyable flight I have ever taken, and I deduced that this was the beginning of an incredible trip.

We picked up our rental car (rented through Costco), got upgraded to a midsize sedan, and off we went to Sedona. We drove south on the 89A through Oak Creek Canyon; the day was crisp, cool, and very clear. The views were amazing and the drive took us less than an hour. There are many traffic circles in Sedona, which can be confusing; we used the maps/navigation app on my iPhone that guided us directly to our hotel, the Poco Diablo Resort. Check in was easy and we got a room on the golf course, which looked more like a putting green than a course. We did not see anybody Golfing while we were there, we did see somebody driving a golf cart around sounding a LOUD horn to scare the birds away. This was very ineffective, the birds flew away but came right back. Instead, I got scared for the birds, and the noise rattled my nerves.

We drove around Sedona looking for a place to buy some water and fruit snacks, we found a circle K and bought a case of water and a bunch of bananas. Back at the hotel, we decided to order room service for dinner since we had been up since 4 am for our flight to Arizona. The menu was funky and expensive; we shared two different sandwiches, which were OK but nothing great. The delivery guy forgot silverware and had to run back and get some for us so our hot sandwich was cold by the time we ate it.

The hotel has Sleep Number beds, which we had not tried so we got into bed and discovered that one was not working. We called the front desk and they sent a handyman to fix the problem. This is when we learned that there was not enough plugs for the bed, and the handyman fixed this issue fairly quick. After that he tried to teach us how to use them in a rather funny dialogue filled with double meanings! It went something like this: “would you like to pump it up or shall I” and “do you like it hard, or soft?” Hard, of course! We could not stop laughing after he left; in fact I had a hard time keeping a strait face throughout the lesson! LOL

We had a good nights rest and awoke to a loud horn blasting. I ran to the window to see two people walking around trying to scare those same birds away. It still did not work, and it still flustered me! The coffee in the room was bad, a one cup drip system with watery coffee that leaves you craving a good cup.

We decided to go into downtown Sedona for breakfast, as opposed to uptown that is really the older part off town. We headed to the Coffee Pot restaurant, right past Coffee Pot road, back on highway 89A. It was crowded and the wait was minimal, we had a booth with a full pot of coffee on it, as well as a pitcher of water and plenty of condiments including pancake syrup. The menu was fabulous, filled with 100 different Omelets, pancakes, waffles, and more. I had eggs and buckwheat pancakes and it was yummy and filling. We ate hear every morning except the day of the seminar when we ate at the hotel for convenience.

The first full day we decided to try to drive all the way up to Page, I wanted to show my friend the best Slot Canyon around, Antelope Canyon (upper and/or lower), which is on the Navajo Reservation. I tried to call to check if they were open but only got an answering machine. We headed north on the 89A, crossed Flagstaff and continued on the 89A towards Page. At the Sunset Crater Volcano/ Wupatki we decided to take the 35 miles loop park road, which circled the Volcanic area and also passed several Native American sights in Wupatki. We visited the Sunset Crater visitor center first to pay our $5.00 per person for the right to drive on the road, walk the paths, and visit the ruins. The park rangers were quite helpful and they suggested that we may or may not be able to visit Antelope Canyon, depending on whether there were tours available and that was iffy at best. Given that each way involved a 3 hour or more drive, we decided to pass on visiting Page and hang out at these parks. It would be a bummer to get to Antelope Canyon and learn it was closed!

These areas are at an 8000-foot and higher altitude and I was not used to it so it was a little difficult to hike, I kept huffing and puffing and wished I had time to acclimate to the altitude. In any event, I just took my time and we were able to explore some of the ruins, but not all. This is a very cool place and if I were in good shape we could have hiked around some extensive ruins by the Wupatki Visitors center, but this was not possible for me. If we had been staying in Flagstaff, which is at a higher altitude than Sedona, I would have been more acclimated. Luckily I had been here in the past and hiked all the ruins and lava flow areas that abound here. As a bonus, there are magnificent views of the Painter Desert throughout these parks.

Since we decided to not go to Page, we headed but toward Flagstaff and stopped at the mall off the 89 to shop! Of course we found lots of stuff to buy, it would not be a girls vacation without a little shopping. 😉 The mall had some good stores, a nice food court, and even discount places like Marshalls. We did a little pocketbook damage then headed back to Sedona. We stopped in the “uptown” area along the 89A and visited some crystal shops. We got a recommendation for a restaurant called Ken’s Creekside Café and we headed there for an early dinner.

Ken’s Creekside Café is a fancy schmancy place that was very expensive and we decided to try it because the salads looked good. I got the seasonal beet salad, which was delicious, and a small pizza like thing that was very so-so. My friend got a chopped Cobb salad that was not chopped, nor mixed, and she was not very impressed with it. If you are looking for a somewhat fancy place with prices to match this might be a place for you to check out. For us, it was not a be-back!

Day two we hung out in Sedona. We tried to find one of the four Vortexes that are here in Sedona with little luck. We visited the Airport Mesa Vortex and could not really find it since there are no directions, no signs, and nobody we met knew where it was. We walked around trying hard to feel something with no luck, we did meet some very nice people and exchanged thoughts and ideas about where it could be but none of them panned out! We gave up and headed to the downtown area and found a wonderful organic market, which carried everything from candles and oils, Jewelry and clothing, and food. We found lots of stuff there are very reasonable prices, and made a generous contribution to the economy of Sedona!

Next we headed to a crystal and new age shop close to the Organic market. My friend quickly found out that she could have a reading here and signed up, and off she went for a half hour of enlightenment. I hung out at the store and played with the Maine coon cat, listened to some meditations, and bought a few crystals for added luck and good vibes! When my friend came out she was in a state of sadness, because an issue in her life was confirmed by the reader/psychic and she was relieved and validated in her thoughts about what to do. I was thrilled that she found solace in this reading, she seemed empowered and stronger in her knowingness while feeling a great deal of sadness at the same time.

We headed back to the hotel to find our room in the state we left it, it was past 5pm and we had to call down to the front desk to ask for room cleaning, towel replacement, and more. We waited while they did this, aggravated that we were paying a lot of money for minimal service. This was the only day they changed our sheets, and replaced our water bottles. We decided that this was hardly a resort.

We decided to try another place for dinner, called the Javelina Cantina, a local hot spot with good Mexican food. There was a 60-minute wait for a table so we decided to grab something in the bar instead and this turned out to be a fantastic strategy. We immediately found a table and sat and ordered quickly. We both got the special Chicken Mole Enchiladas, which were delicious and huge. We should have split the plate it was too much food for either of us to eat, but it was so good and filling. Definitely a be-back kind of place!

The morning of our seminar we finally ate at the hotel restaurant. It was good; nothing special but suited us because we did not have time to go to the Coffee Pot. As a side note, the pool was closed for the day because a child had gone to the bathroom in the pool. Although the pool water was never drained (yuck) they must have treated the water with a lot of chemicals, at least I hope they did! In our home communities when this happens the pool is completely drained, scrubbed, and treated before people are allowed to come back into the pool. Needless to say, we had no plans of using the pool.

Our seminar was nice, we learned a lot about ourselves, and more new age stuff. We were hypnotized three times and I had some deeply relaxing and enlightening experiences in each. At lunch we took off to find a Falafel at a restaurant called Pita Fresh in downtown Sedona. We had trouble with our orders, the Falafel plate I ordered was missing essential items such as hummus and hot sauce, we did not get any utensils, and by the time I got everything I needed it was time to go back to the seminar. The falafel itself was good, but the service was terrible and this took away from the good tasting food. It did not help that service was so slow we had to eat at a breakneck speed!