Flagstaff to Sedona

When we left Grand Canyon, we only had a vague notion of heading south to Flagstaff.  This seemed to be a reasonable sized city, and it had been a while since we had seen city life.

Since Flagstaff was the largest place we had been since Las Vegas, I wasn't exactly sure what to type into Gladys to get us there.  We hadn't had breakfast, so I choose a diner on Route 66 called Galaxy.  This met our expectations of a very funky All American diner.  Although they offered 100 different shakes and malts, we asked for Earl Grey tea!

After breakfast we wandered around the historic section of Flagstaff for a couple of hours.  I was lucky enough to find a historic coffee house that warranted investigation and research (great coffee!)

Stuart found a place to get his haircut, where the hairdresser told him about a fabulous restaurant in Sedona called Elote.

If we had had a plan, this would have been enough to change our plans.  Fortunately, we had no plans, so this became our plan - head to Sedona to try the restaurant.

We initially intended to drive scenic highway 89A to Sedona, but a major forest fire a week earlier had closed this route, so instead we took a longer route via highway17.  Fortunately,this brought us into Sedona via Red Rock canyon, which was more stunning rock formations. However, we didn't stop here, we were on a mission.

We arrived at Elote at 5pm and indeed there was a long queue already.  I glanced at the other diners and noted that although they were casually dressed, I was probably one rung lower than casual.  I had fallen out the camper in my shorts and lime green flip flops (97 cents, damn you Walmart, damn you).  However, travelling with all your current worldly goods in tow meant that I could pop back and change before Stuart had made it to the front of the line.

We were the last people to get a table at the first sitting, so we had to accept one on the patio, which was delightful, but extremely hot.  The restaurant did however have a misting machine, which gently sprayed water over the diners.  I briefly wondered if slow roast, lightly steamed humans was going to be the special for the next sitting. Fortunately, I had a great strategy for staying cool.  I asked for my white wine to be extra chilled.

The food was exquisite, and although I have loved all our campground meals, you can't beat a bit of fine dining every now and then!