The rocks are not bright like a cherry tomato or deep red like a margherita pizza sauce, but more orange-red like a robin’s breast caught in a glow of sunlight. One thing I didn’t expect in Arizona or Sedona was green. Along the Oak Creek Valley, it’s all sycamores and pines and oak trees braiding up the cliffs and down to the creek bed. It would be an awesome place to camp. That’s where we ate dinner at The Table at Junipine, which felt a little like dining on a patio in the alps for some reason.
Not that we considered camping. We stayed at the Sedona Summit Resort, which gave us two rooms, big cushy beds, huge bathtubs, a kitchen, and two patio spaces with views of the red rocks of Sedona. Early morning brought views of hot air balloons drifting by. Best of all, we had four pools and four hot tubs from which to choose. Tatum and I lay on the hot cement by one pool, with our pale legs browning and talked deep talks; and all of us swam or jaccuzied under the stars in another pool area. The club house pool area gave us giant Connect Four, ping pong and table soccer, which we used multiple nights, when we weren’t playing Kids Against Maturity.
Pink, like frosted toe nails pink, also featured prominently on our trip. We took a Pink Jeep tour up into the cliffs our first day. Our guide Mike was a former history professor and I loved seeing the old wagon trails from 1901, places where miles had to be attached to the back of the wagons because the descent was so steep, places where it took four days to travel 45 miles from Sedona to Flagstaff, where the train could bring in supplies or carry out goods for sale. The road felt practically as bumpy now, but it was fascinating and fun to be up in the red cliffs, which were once where Namibia is now.
There is of course not much to compare to the incomparable Grand Canyon. We took a bus tour because of the two hour drive each way and because I’d read about long lines to enter, sure to be an issue on a holiday weekend. I also didn’t know exactly what to do and where to go to “see” such a vast expanse. We were as nimble as mountain goats compared to our four elderly van companions, one of whom was on an oxygen machine, so we did zero hikes, regretfully. But we still saw the views of 24-miles-across expanse. Even though the river is the entire reason for the canyon, it was still somehow surprising to see the smoky emerald color of the Colorado River curving mystically through the dry, paprika-colored rocks.
Sedona brings out such a mix of people. In our hot tub, Mom and I listened to a big man with tats, a border patrol, and his wife boast laughingly about wearing a mask without fabric to bypass store rules. The man next to him, a child abuse investigator, a stranger until five minutes ago, shared his beer, Covid-germs no matter. The other big guy in the circle talked about how he could feel how real was the vortex in the earth in Sedona, “something else, real special.” I wondered what the Hopi elder I had met the day before, wearing turquoise and silver jewelry and unimpressed by the Navajo dolls for sale at the trading post, would think about that conversation. Elsie, the old Hopi woman who embroidered a flaw into every tapestry, including the one under which we sat to eat our Navajo tacos, passed away from Covid in December.
Family highlights are never about the grand things, are they? Here are some of the small moments we will cherish.
Tatum – when we were swimming at night, talking with Mom by the side of the pool, meeting Aunt Megan’s family, going to Flagstaff with Goodnews and Grandoug; just everything.
Finn – tossing the ball with Tatum and Clara in the pool and having a blast; hanging out with Tatum and Clara in the van, messing around, when we were going to the Grand Canyon; going to the trampoline park; showing Tatum’s Raven’s Revenge because she laughed. A lot.
Clara – playing ping pong, going to the restaurant last night with Goodnews and Grandoug, and the pink Jeep drive.
Kev – hiking Devil’s Bridge with Finn and listening to him complain about his dry lips; being with Tatum; the first dinner at the hotel on the balcony; spending time with Goodnews and Doug at dinner in Oak Creek Valley.
Heather – seeing Tatum run outside to hug Goodnews; watching the kids play and laugh in the pool at night; dinner at the Mexican restaurant where we pranked Kevin by putting salt and sugar in his water; seeing the kids laughing in the back of the rented minivan; pizza dinner at Megan’s house and having our kids meet each other. Tatum asking me to ask for prayers for her at Church of the Red Rocks. Clara and Tatum holding hands in the pew. Having my mom and children next to me in church. Lowlights: thinking about saying goodbye to Tatum, saying goodbye to Tatum, seeing Finn’s heart break saying goodbye to Tatum. Tatum’s silent tears in the back of Mom’s and Doug’s car.
@theterrace 