The Grand Canyon State

It was cold. Super cold. At night, temperatures dropped to -25. Yes, there is a - before 25.

Civy, livin on the edge.

We went right.

We got back to the resort at 8 pm. We agreed to listen to the "buy a time share, or have a terrible life" speech in exchange for two nights at $50 a pop. The condo we stayed in is normally just under $400/night. Score! So we checked in after a long day of driving, got the keys and followed the map to the much anticipated room. When we stuck the key in the door and it opened, we were surprised to see people living in our room. They were surprised too. Needless to say, they didn't appreciate the front desk inviting people over to their pad and we shuffled back up to the front office. By the time I walked in, the lady had already called the front desk and let them know of the incident. We were upgraded without asking. Score #2! 

Once we were unloaded in our new condo-full kitchen, huge bath with a 3 person tub, flat screen TVs, etc. We were feelin' pretty good! Then we remembered we had to get up at 9 am to hear the pitch. Ug.

Arriving at the meeting in the morning, we saw all the other victims like ourselves and felt comforted. Our sales rep introduced herself and she really was quite pleasant. We went on a golf cart tour in which she ran into some rocks, saw the model rooms that looked just like the room we were staying in, and then went back to the conference room to get "sold" to. We were polite, it really was a great deal, the program makes sense, but no thanks. No thanks again, and a couple more no thanks. It ended up being 2 1/2 hours instead of 1 1/2 which was slightly devastating but we had to remember we made $$$$ on our room during those painful hours. As we left, they handed us a voucher for a 3 days, 2 nights stay at one of their other resorts. Score #3! We will be taking advantage of their South Lake Tahoe Resort this summer. I think Peter is already packed- he's so excited.

We went back to our room to shake off the speech and then headed to small town Sedona shortly after. We stopped by the Chapel of the Holy Cross which was a church built into the rocks that a daughter made as a memorial for her parents. 

Below is Peter's favorite part of the Chapel of the Holy Cross...

We had seen people stuck on the side of the road in the Grand Canyon, we slide once but was spared the ditch beside the road, we slide into a parking spot at Moran Point in the Grand Canyon but stopped just before the wall, but this....How on earth did they do this! No snow, plenty of parking, Peter died laughing.

We had lunch at the Cowboy Club, bought a piece of fudge from the most delicious smelling candy shops I'd ever walked by, went back to the room and then relaxed the rest of the night. We decided at 8 pm that we wanted dinner so we headed out to find the highly recommended "Famous Pizza". After  a few phone calls and asking some pedestrians, we found it and it was truly fantastic.

Monday morning we slept in until the last minute and made our check out time at 11 am. 

On the road again...

We shared the driving, made New Year Resolutions, debated where the In-N-Out is in Palm Springs (I won), planned our next vacations, and traded off giving back rubs. We were so sore!! I was never more happy to see the 91 freeway...and I hate the 91 freeway.

We had a fabulous, spontaneous trip. Next up, Colorado over Easter break! Whoo!

xo, p&l