Our Favorite Swedish Store!

Hi, Ya'll!

What a day we had today! We left the hotel this morning to find our way to IKEA! We made our way back at 5 p.m.! Aren't you proud of us? We did the upper floor first, and then stopped for lunch at their cafe. After that we were ready to tackle the bottom floor. We thought our feet would fall off. (Actually Sharon wanted Ellen to push her around in one of their carts!) We couldn't figure a way to get her in or out!
Sharon's bill was over a hundred dollars and Ellen's was almost a hundred. What fun, what fun!
This evening the hotel that we have come to know as our "home away from home" offers barbecue and beer for their social hour. We will go check it out--not for the beer, mind you, but for the lettuce and tomatoes that we are hoping to find to help us make our own tacos! (Hee, hee!) By the way--while we were in IKEA, Ellen got a call from Homewood Suites. They were responding to a certain scathing review that we filled out online. Ellen spoke with their representative telling him that because of the conditions in Albuquerque, we canceled our reservations in Phoenix with Homewood Suites. He was sad--so sad! As a gift to us for making us SO SAD, we will be receiving a voucher for an upgraded deluxe suite. He hopes we will give them another chance--maybe so, but not in Albuquerque!

Tomorrow brings Arizona Mills Outlet Mall! It is located just across the street!

Until next time . . . . . . .

Look What We Found!

Hi, Ya'll!

On our way to Phoenix this afternoon, both of us needed to stop and use the facilities somewhere. We got off the freeway at Anthem, because we saw the Chevron sign. As we pulled into the station, LOOK WHAT WE FOUND RIGHT NEXT DOOR TO IT!!! Of course, we had to take a drive through to see what was there. After a "brief" stop, we continued on our course to Phoenix. We shall return. There were lots and lots of stores there. (Several years ago, we found this place. In fact it was the first time that Ellen made Sharon get into a wheelchair because the area was so large.)
The drive out of Flagstaff and for many miles was just as beautiful as our days of driving through the forests. Of course, no trip would be complete without road work signs.

The Arizona desert is full of Saguaro cacti. They stand stately and tall!

As we came down off the mountain with its 80 degree temperatures, we were made aware of what the weather was like outside the comfort of our car.

Then, a few minutes later, we saw THIS!It kept going up and up! Sharon just kept snapping the picture of the console of her car. (Dust and all!)

Thank goodnesss, it finally stopped here!!

We were going to stay at a Homewood Suites during this stay. But, after our experience in Albuquerque, Ellen quickly changed our reservations for this leg of the journey. You guessed it! We are at a Residence Inn in Tempe.

Have we told everyone that we LOVE The Residence Inn?! It is amazing that the rooms look so much alike, but they suit us just fine.

We have room for all of our things.

We also have plenty of room to just relax. That is a very nice fireplace that you see, but NOT when it is 113 degrees outside!

We are approximately ten minutes from IKEA. Tomorrow will be our day to enjoy that particular store. We will shop for awhile and then have lunch in their cafeteria. Then we will continue with our shopping. (Thanks, Nichole, for introducing us to this fun place!) We don't get this way too often, so when we are here, we make sure to set aside an entire day for IKEA. We both have made a shopping list for this store.

Until next time. . . . . .

Residence Inn--The Best Place To Stay!

Hi, Ya'll!

Today was a wonderfully relaxing day for us both. We took our time getting out of the hotel so the housekeeper could come in to clean our room. We went to fill up the car with gas. It wasn't too bad cost wise--$3.97. We fill up the car to keep the top half full. After that, we went to Barnes and Noble to get that book, "The Last Lecture" by Randy Pausch. What a wonderful man he was. His outlook on life was terrific even though he was looking at pancreatic cancer. We will always remember seeing him scoop up his wife at the end of his graduation ceremonies this past spring. What a wonderful outlook on life he had. We should all look at life the way he did.

Then we want to show you our dinner tonight, our last night in Flagstaff. It was delicious. Because we take most of our food with us, we really don't spend much money on food when we go on our trips. We had grilled shrimp, a crab cake, steamed veggies, a bread stick, and our favorite beverage.
Then we realized we hadn't shown you our room here. It seems very spacious, especially compared with Homewood Suites in Albuquerque.

This evening we will relax, watch a little television, and split the piece of Key Lime Cheesecake that we bought at Barnes and Noble. We will be certain to aid its digestion by finishing the bottle of Estancia!

Until next time from Phoenix. . . . . . . .

Grand Canyon Grandeur!

Hi, Ya'll!



Monday was an absolutely beautiful day. The drive from Flagstaff to the Grand Canyon was so peaceful. We drove mile after mile through forests! Just to be in the midst of all those green trees is calming to the soul. We saw signs of deer, elk, cows, and horses. (We forgot to mention that on the road back from Sedona, a deer jumped right in front of our car. That scared us both. It made Ellen's hands shake, and Sharon's heart jump right into an irregular beat!)

There is a Visitors' Center about one mile before you get to the entrance of the Canyon. We stopped because we wanted to go to the IMAX theater and see the film, "The Grand Canyon". A few of the scenes almost made Ellen wish she had some ginger chews with her. Then there were the ones that made you feel like you were in a plane. That made Sharon wish she had some Xanax!! The film is only 30 minutes long, but it gave us some good history regarding the Canyon.



Below are a few pictures that we took.

The lighter triangle in the middle of this one is actually water.
The colors of the rock are indescribable.

We are sitting safely on the wall. No Thelma and Louise act for us!!
This is definitely one of the Wonders of the World!

For people who camp and hike, there are so many areas to explore. For those of us who can't do that, just being in the midst of these vast surroundings is an experience that cannot be described. We were amazed at how many people we saw from all over the world. We heard languages such as Dutch, German, French, Spanish, Japanese, and accents of English from all over the USA.

Our plans for today are very laid back. We are going to explore the Flagstaff area a little more.

Until next time.. . . . . .

Simply Stunning Sedona!!!

Hi, Ya'll!

We are not certain that we were prepared for the Sedona Beauty that we saw today. God has done wondrous things in Arizona. We saw tourists from everywhere in the Universe today. The town of Sedona has become a tourist town, and we certainly had a good time doing touristy kinds of things.
Some of the pictures that we took were taken from the car, so the quatlity is not good.
You can get the idea that we were thrilled with our surroundings. We took the mountain pass from Flagstaff to Sedona. Oh, my, it was worth every twist and turn in the road!

Ellen was driving, so Sharon was in charge of the camera.
There were some stretches of road that were completely covered with overhanging trees. One of these areas seemed to go on for miles! It is difficult to explain the beauty of it all!

We went to the Hyatt Regency Pinion Pointe. There were numerous shops. One of them was a wine tasting bar. The welcome sign said, "Come in, Ellen and Sharon."

We went in and tasted five different wines from area wineries. We met a young woman who moved here from New Jersey. She worked at the store. She met her husband in Sedona, and they love living there. We bought a bottle of Pecan Champaigne, along with our tasting glasses. On our way back to the car, there was an area with tables and chairs that overlooked the mountain. We sat to rest and then soon discovered the Coldstone Creamery that was right behind us! You guessed it! So as we ate our lifestyle yogurt (25 cal., no fat), we enjoyed the beauty of the mountain and the red rock for just a bit longer.

We made it back to Flagstaff. Tomorrow, our adventures will take us to the Grand Canyon!

Until next time. . . . . .

Flagstaff Fun!

Hi, Ya'll!

We haven't posted any pictures of ourselves because....we hadn't taken any!! So, here we are at lunch at The Beaver Street Brewery!

We had a nice, young man as our waiter. He volunteered to take a picture of us. In case of any doubt, yes, those are glasses of Chardonnay!

We had not taken any pictures of food, so we didn't want to disappoint any of our faithful readers! This is a salad of greens, dried apricots, cranberries, walnuts, mandarin oranges, and walnuts. Oh, yes, and feta cheese. We had already put some of it on our plates before we took the picture! It was huge.

This is a Southwest Chicken Pizza. YUM!
This is a picture of the main bar at The Beaver Street Brewery. The restaurant was quite busy, but we had so much fun.

The following few pictures were taken from the front of our hotel. We thought you all might like to see a little of the scenery here in Northern Arizona. It's hard to believe that Phoenix and its 100 degree weather is only 150 miles away!

We tried to do a "Michael and Nichole" picture. We were laughing because Ellen was trying to keep her hand steady and push the button at the same time! It is harder to do than one would think. (Ellen's arms are longer than Sharon's!)

If we look like we are having a fun and relaxing time--GOOD! We are!

Until next time. . . . . . . . .

The Beauty of Rock

Hi, Ya'll!



Okay, before we talk about Flagstaff anymore, we wanted to show you something that struck us a being a little strange. This is at the Homewood Suites in Albuquerque. Shouldn't the valance of the shower curtain be on the outside??

These next four photos were taken in the car while we were going down the road. We thought they turned out pretty well. The day was a beautiful one for our drive to Flagstaff.

The rock formations are incredible. You can tell that this area has also received quite a bit of rain. The vegetation was abundant.

New Mexico certainly loves Casinos! We passed several of them right off of I-40. We didn't stop at any of them because we would rather use our money to shop, rather than risk losing it!

Here we are being welcomed to Arizona.

Mother Nature created a spectacular sight with the trees, water, and volcanic ash that once covered this area.

We drove the 28 miles through the National Park. They have put several look -out points where you can park and take pictures. One area was called Crystal Point. The trees looked as though they had been cut with a chain saw and then the inside was crystallized. The colors were unbelievable!

Today we went exploring downtown Flagstaff. We had lunch at a great place, The Beaver Street Brewery. When we left, it was pouring down rain. That ended our sight seeing around Historic Old Town. Tomorrow--Sedona!

Until next time . . . . . . . .