Motorway Monday

 

Now you understand the geology

Lynn and I went to the yarn shop while Dave studied Italian wines.  We had lunch at the Mesa Grill restaurant up by the Sedona Airport. We got a little lost on the way to the restaurant, but found a convenient carwash to turn around in. It’s a nice view but the food was mediocre – even my eggplant “meat”balls. 

See the ruins? Also, how about that blue sky?

This was our big driving day – we went up to Flagstaff. On the way we stopped at a scenic view area, where they had a very good poster explaining the geology of the area. First real stop was Walnut Canyon, which has ruins of the Ancestral Pueblo People. Before we set out, I bought an inexpensive collapsible walking stick at the excellent gift store. 

At Walnut Canyon you walk around a central section that sticks out into the canyon – it’s both a good walk and an interesting archeological site, with good signage. The trail itself is very easy, but there are a lot of stairs to go down to it – and it feels like there are even more to go up! When we got back to the gift store Dave and Lynn got sticks too. There’s a short walk on the rim of the canyon which we also did, giving D&L a chance to try out their sticks. At Walnut Canyon we also discovered that the things Dave and I call pancake cactuses and Lynn calls prickly pears and Safeway calls nopales are all the same thing.

I love learning

We continued on into and out of Flagstaff to visit the Lowell observatory, which you may not know (I didn’t!) is where Pluto was discovered. Dave kept his sentiments about Pluto to himself while we were there, but I found it exhilarating to be among Pluto partisans. They even had a fundraising box where you could express your opinion about Pluto by putting money in the appropriate box. We strolled around the grounds a bit, and then it was time for dinner. We ate at a Lumberyard Brewing Co., where the beer and the food were both well above average. In fact the veggies – brussels sprouts and roasted veggies – need to be called out specifically as extra-yummy. 

Percival Lowell used this telescope to
to study the canals on Mars.

Once we were done with dinner it was getting dark, so we went back to the Observatory where they are open to the public almost every night. Sadly, the 24” Clark refractor wasn’t being used (the dome had frozen shut!), which didn't keep me from enjoying the car tires they use to rotate the dome. The impressive thing is they have 6 big amatuer telescopes permanently set up in a common viewing area. There was a good crowd there too, and lots of astronomy to be had. We all enjoyed ourselves a lot.

The drive between Sedona and Flagstaff is very, very, twisty and Lynn did an excellent job of getting us there and back.