Travel, Photography, Life

Road-Tripping to Tucson, Sedona’s Red Rocks, Celebrating my Birthday, Date Night in LA, Kitty Update and Alton has a Mild Case of Covid

Three weeks in photos

I spent my junior high, high school and college years in Tucson, Arizona. When we moved there from Upstate New York, where I was born, I had no idea what to expect about living in the Sonoran Desert. But, pretty quickly, Arizona’s vast skies, craggy mountains, saguaro cacti, summer monsoons and springtime bursts of wildflowers won my heart.

I left when I was twenty-one and headed to Austin, Texas for graduate school. And then I met my husband and moved to California when I was twenty-four.

But the desert has always held a part of my heart within its wild grip.

For one crazy year, when I was twenty-eight, we sold everything we had and moved into a little rental house in Sedona, which is about four hours north of Tucson. It’s a land of geological wonder composed of fingers of striated rock jutting up from the pinyon pine-studded high desert floor (4500 feet in elevation). And it was a place that gave us great peace.

We would have stayed, but we didn’t really know how to make a living there. And my husband knew that his whole law career (for which he had high aspirations) had to be cultured in California, where all of his clients and contacts were. So, after a year, we packed it up and moved back to Orange County.

But we still road trip to Sedona at least once a year and “dream a little dream.”

For my birthday this year, I asked to go to Sedona for a few days.

We headed to Tucson first, to see my dear “Mamacita,” (my dad’s third (of four)) wives. She’s the one who was like a mother to me for many years when they were married and with whom I have stayed connected long after they divorced. She’s in hospice right now. I wasn’t sure if the visit was going to be a tear-jerker or what to expect. But it turned out to be a beautiful few days filled with laughter and good memories.

This is the view of one of her prized cacti in her front yard, just as the sun was setting and casting this golden glow on it.

While in Tucson, we stayed at the historical Arizona Inn (more on this coming soon). Built in the 1930’s, it was a magnet for movie stars and celebrities. People used to bring steamer trunks with them on the train and stay for a few months. I’d always wanted to stay there, but we never had (because it is rather pricey). But I guess we were coming in the off-season and I found a really good deal on a room, so we decided to splurge. We arrived in the midst of a glorious monsoon.

This is the “wedding fountain” against the backdrop of a nearly- full moon, cloud-laced sky.

We left Tucson and headed north to Sedona, arriving at our Airbnb in the dark. The pictures online had looked nice, but you never quite know what to expect. So, I was very happy to wake up to this morning view!

After a leisurely breakfast, we headed over the Brin’s Mesa trailhead. This trail is known as the “Sedona Stairmaster” because it goes up, up and up until you reach the mesa and look back at this incredible vista. It makes it all worthwhile!

In the next photo you can look back across the mesa towards where the trail emerged from below.

After the hike, we decided to drive through our old neighborhood in the “Chapel Area.” That’s our old house — it’s been fixed up a LOT! And that was the view from our old front porch, where we sat so many nights with a glass of wine to watch the rocks glow in the setting sun.

There’s a lot we’ve had our eyes on for all of these years. Every time we go back to Sedona, we check on it to see if anyone has bought it or built on it. You never know what the future will bring. We’re still dreaming….

Then we drove up through Oak Creek Canyon to the overlook on the way to Flagstaff. I had asked for a new piece of Native American jewelry for my birthday. The Navajo and Hopi set up tables and sell directly there. I’ve always liked supporting the artists and their families by buying straight from them.

I had bought a lovely dragonfly necklace from a woman named Brook and I was in search of her again. I had lost her card, but, by a weird twist of fate, she was there (for the first time since May). We bought this “corn maiden” pendant. I loved that the swirls on it represent the Wind God blowing away anything negative in your life and bringing in positive change.

The next day, my actual birthday, we hiked the Chicken Point/Submarine Rock trail. I used to run this trail every morning when we lived here. And this rock formation was my morning meditation spot.

Here’s my honey, taking a little break.

And here’s the view from Chicken Point out back towards Cathedral Rock.

And here’s me, doing what I love….

Here’s my birthday desert — cherry pie a la mode.

The next day we hiked to “Subway Cave in Boynton Canyon.

You can read more about that here:

Then we headed up to the roof deck for the full “Hunter’s Moon.”

I was interested to see Jane Frost (Jane Grows Garden Rooms)’s photo of the full moon from the Southern Hemisphere, because the navel is in a totally different place. She did a little research and, sure enough, it does look quite different from down there!

We stopped into one of my favorite shops while we were there and got a new set of animal cards.

It was an epic trip (with more stories to come) and we’ve already booked another Airbnb in Sedona for a week over Thanksgiving.

Back home (I know I really need to get back to doing these once a week rather than waiting three weeks!), this is the morning view from the front balcony. That’s little Freyja with her Oat Grass.

And here’s Uma, enjoying the morning too.

Freyja is still enjoying her perch from the oat grass pot on the “Garden in the Sky” too.

Down in our nearby Peter’s canyon, the cattails are starting to explode — a sure sign of fall.

And we got to test drive the new electric Rivian SUV. We actually pre-ordered one of these (in Hunter Green and with a camper tent for the roof) over a year ago. But it is not expected to be ready until next spring. It was pretty cool though and we were excited to learn that it has a 300-mile range.

We had a date night in LA. My husband is part of a wine/food society and we don’t like to drive after having wine, so we got a room. I thought the view from the room was sort of interesting because of the patterned tiles below.

We just finished watching the new Beatle’s documentary, Let it Be. It was amazing!!!!!

The kitties got a new toy. It’s a “ripple rug.” You can make all sorts of shapes with it.

And Bisou has really been enjoying the new “Shantaram” series. He likes baseball too. He tries to chase the ball.

I had completely forgotten about the carrots I had planted. But, Tomas, my gardener, harvested them for me and we made a lovely glazed carrot dish.

And we had some more, very welcome, rain. Here, Freyja and I are reading in the yoga room, with the balcony door open so that we can hear the thunder and lightening.

Pretty soon, Alton and Bisou came up to join us. You might notice that Bisou has brought his fish along. He LOVES this toy. He brings it to bed most nights, accompanied by a special “Look what I caught, Mom!” meow.

If you are wondering why Alton looks so sleepy, it’s because we found out the next morning that he has Covid. It’s not a bad case (we’re vaccinated and double-boosted) but we’re sort of kicking ourselves for not having gotten that Omicron booster yet.

So far I haven’t caught it. I’m keeping my fingers crossed. We had the original “alpha” version of Covid in March of 2020 and I was sick for 16 days, battling a fever of 104.6 degrees that just would not go down (this is the link to that experience, if you’re interested in a bit of a time wharp story).

I’ve been back on the bike again. For a while, it was just too hot to ride. That’s a road runner in the distance — that little tiny speck with a tail.

So, that’s my three weeks in photos. Thank you for coming along on the ride. If you’re still reading, thank you! I am pledging to try to keep up with this a little better in future weeks.

You might want to check out a few of the others who participate in the “Photo A Week” challenge:

Dennett /Anne Bonfert /Eileen Vorbach /Lisa Bolin /Tracy Aston /David Wade Chambers/Kim Zuch /Barbara Radisavljevic /LensAfield /Barbara Dalton /Sasha Meyer /Susan Alison /Diana Lotti /Barbara Dalton /K. Barrett /June Nguyen /Juan O. Aguilera /Ellie Jacobson /Shruthi Sundaram/ Pene Hodge /Tracy Aston/ Sandra Barrett/Jillian Amatt — Artistic Voyages /Shell Parsons/Ivy Shepherd/Mia Verita/ Lynne Nardizzi

(if I’ve missed any of the “week in photos” tribe, please let me know!)

Erika Burkhalter is a yogi, neurophilosopher, cat-mom, photographer, and lover of travel and nature, spreading her love and amazement for Mother Earth’s glories, one photo, poem or story at a time. (MS Neuropsychology, MA Yoga Studies).

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Photos and story ©Erika Burkhalter. All rights reserved.