hey we're back! i'll try to keep this from becoming the longest post ever... i put up our map with little stars by each place we stayed. we flew into albuquerque last friday and stayed fri. and sat. night at casas de suenos which had really good breakfast. albuquerque calls their airport the "Sunport", love it. so we did "old town", the art museum and the natural history museum sat. old town feels like you're in "mexico" at epcot- lots of adobe, jewelry/art/t-shirt shops, and tourists. climbed saturday night at the local gym- really nice big place with lovely staff. sunday on our way out of town we drove through "nob hill" on route 66 to see some of the famous buildings that allegedly inspired buildings in the movie "cars".
sun. we drove to holbrook to stay at the wigwam motel on route 66. i must confess, i was REALLY excited to stay in a concrete teepee. the wigwam is another "cars" inspiration. there is NOTHING in holbrook. ok, maybe not nothing- they have a grocery store, a diner, a rock shop with fake dinos out front and a one screen movie theater. the tee pee was super fun. they still have all of their 50's furnishings and each one has an old car parked our front of it. almost forgot- on our way to holbrook we drove up to window rock to see...the window rock and the navajo nation's veteran's war memorial dedicated to navajo code-talkers.
monday morning we ate at joe & aggie's cafe (where they give you potato chips with your breakfast) and then headed to the canyon stopping at the meteor crater on the way. it's hard to describe the canyon well. everything will just sound trite. it's HUMOUNGAZOID and it's a bazillion times better than tv. there's always a better view around the corner. we stayed at the canyon monday and tuesday night. the food there was AWFUL, but who cares? the canyon far outweighed any negatives. 
wednesday we drove down to cordes junction to stay at arcosanti. that place was pretty wild. it's the brainchild/life's work of one man who is now 89. go check out the site, it will take too long to describe in this post. dave loved it. i think he would have stayed all week. 
thursday we drove up through sedona to flagstaff. that's where i would have stayed all week. it was so beautiful! mountains, red rocks, canyons, creeks! we pulled over about half way up the mountain and climbed down to the creek to splash around- the water was so nice. flagstaff was exactly what i pictured arizona to be in my mind- pretty, sort of wild west, people driving quads down the street, men with beards. we ate the best food of the whole trip at martanne's- thanks for the tip comandas! chicken and bean tostada with rice and all covered with green chile sauce- so yum! i bought new climbing shoes at the flagstaff gym to replace me super smelly ones that dave convinced me to throw out at the canyon because they were stinking up the car. thanks for the shoe beta VR staff! 
we also visited the lowell observatory there. i thought we were going to see modern telescopes and real astronomers doing their thing, but turns out it's a historical site with an old telescope and a tour. still worth it just not what i expected.
let's see..then from flagstaff we drove to winslow. yes, THAT winslow. and yes, i did stand on a corner. although i did not have seven women on my mind. we stayed at la posada (designed by mary colter who also designed el tovar, the hopi house and the watchtower at the canyon) in the dorothy lamour room. all the rooms are named after movie stars that stayed there back in the day. it's a really beautiful place. and again there is NOTHING in winslow except for la posada.
we drove back to albuquerque on friday night and flew back home sat. got it super late this morning and now it's laundry time!
sorry there aren't more deep thoughts on travel here- i'm feeling a little road weary at the moment. as with most trips, it's the things that surprise you, the things you stumble upon that are the most fun. i'm going to make a photo album over on the side so you can see more of the trip if you want...
