Good Afternoon

Good Afternoon

Mood: Well Rested but Sore, smile!

Music listening to: Rock Steady by the Whispers (Classic R&B)

How are you doing on this nice Saturday afternoon? We are doing just fine, thanks. I started the day off at 5:30am getting Chris settled for the day. Elise will be caring for him after she returns from swimming this morning. We also have a few errands to run like getting the tires rotated on the pick-up and getting gas for the Kia.

We are going to go out for Tapas this evening at a place called Casa Vicente, the food there is excellent. Afterwards we are going to the Cabaret Theatre to see a play called Dorthy Parker's Last Call. We will be joined by Jan and Lundy for dinner and the play, it should be a great evening.

Well, I had better get to filling you in about our mini-vacation to Williams, AZ, the Grand Canyon and Sedona, so here goes:

We left Tucson on the 21st at 6:30am, Brent arrived at 6:00am to care for Chris while we were away. Chris is always happy to see Brent. We are going to miss Brent when he stops taking care of Chris so that he can care for his parents. It will be a very sad note in our lives for sure. We stopped at a truck stop for breakfast and the food was good. Elise had a ham slice, scrambled eggs and hash browns. I had the pork chops, scrambled eggs and hash browns. Of course we loaded up on coffee.

We listened to a book on tape about what the world might be like in 2027. It is really scary because the book was written in 2000 and yet the author mentions the financial meltdown of the year 2007. How did he know about that? We arrived at our Marriott hotel in Williams and let me tell you it is very chilly here. In the 50's and it is supposed to be in the 30's or below tonight. We walked around the streets of Williams, AZ population 3000. It consists of one main street on Route 66 and on that street are a zillion and one hotels, motels, restaurants and gift shops. We bought Kim a Route 66 sign and we bought tee shirts for ourselves and yes the tees are long sleeve. We stopped by the train depot to pick u our tickets for tomorrow. $169.00 for two and you could upgrade to first class if you doubled the price. We didn't the standard couch was good enough for us.

We returned to our hotel and we played video games on the laptop for the rest of the afternoon, of course we had to have a couple of Jack and Cokes to heat us up, smile. Later we went to have dinner at a place called Doc Holidays Steak House. The food was very good. I ordered a huge T-Bone with fries and Elise ordered shrimp cocktail, salad and a baked potato. Yep, you guess it we shared the whole meal together. We also got a bottle of Ravenwood Zinfandel that was very good. We returned to our hotel and and we consumed a few more Jacks. Elise went to get dessert from the lobby that consisted of a Payday candy bar and a homemade cookie that was very good. We called it a night.

22-Oct

I was up at around 6:00am or so and Elise didn't get up until 7:15am. We both got showered and dressed and we went to the lobby for a continental breakfast. Elise picked up a couple of apples to to take along with us on the rain. It was cold outside and the pick up was covered in frost. We had a very nice train ride to the canyon and there were people from all over in our car. There were four couples in our car who were celebrating being married for 50 years, now that is a feat in it's self. They had cards and balloons tied to their seats. Our hostess was very good her name was Amber Rose and she talked non-stop. She was very entertaining. We even had strolling cowboys singing songs and playing the guitar as well. We spent 3 and a half hours at the canyon and it is breathtaking to see even if you have been there before, it is still an amazing sight to see. I was a cool 64 degrees at the canyon. We saw Elk,Deer, Squirrels, Giant Crows,Tarantulas, Antelope, a mule train down in the canyon, lizards and Mountain Goats. After walking along the South Rim of the canyon we were hungry so we ate lunch at a place called El Tovar and the food was great. Elise had a burger with cheese and mushrooms, no bun, and french fries. I had a shaved prime rib sandwich with Havarti cheese and chile's, with fries. After walking the rim we needed a couple of Jack and Cokes without a doubt. The restaurant was built in 1905 and it is really cool inside. What a great day at the canyon but we are looking forward to the peaceful ride back to Williams.

Well, that got interrupted due to we were held up for a while when group of masked outlaws decided to board our train and rob it. They wanted money, jewelry, good teeth even. They got to us and Elise gave one of the outlaws an apple and that made him happy. The train ride was superb! We returned to our room to kick back for a bit but it wasn't long before we were on the move again. At about 8:00pm went to a place called Pancho McGillcuddys for dinner. A Irish/Mexican restaurant. It was built in 1893 and it used to be a saloon in the heart of the Red Light District no less. We had Margarita's that were really good and not watered down at all. Elise had shredded beef tostados, with rice and beans. It was too much for her to handle so she gave me one of her tostados, and yes it was very good. I had my usual chicken enchiladas with rice and beans. What a meal we had to share another Margarita before we headed back to our hotel. We got back to the room and it was all over, we were stuffed and tired.

23 Oct

We woke up at late this morning even though we went to bed early last night at 9:00pm. Can you believe it that Elise was up before me? We got dressed and we went to have breakfast tat the best place in town or so Amber Rose told us. Remember Amber Rose she was our hostess on the train. She was there with her Mom and she introduced us to her. The name of the restaurant was Pine Country restaurant. Elise had oatmeal with the works. I had scrambled eggs, hash browns, ham and a English Muffin. We had gallons of coffee too! We bought a huge cinnamon roll for Elise's Mum at a cost of $4.49, we hope that she likes it. We were sitting near a group of German tourists and they were fascinated at the pie display case. The pies were some of the biggest pies you have ever seen. After breakfast we went to the Red Garter Bakery and Bed shop. It is a bed and breakfast place that used to be a brothel and bar in the good old days. We bought a hat for Chris and a t-shirt for Brent and Kim.

We checked out of the hotel and now we are on our way to Sedona. We had a very nice relaxing drive to Sedona and the red rocks are a wonder to see. We arrived back in Tucson at around 5:00pm and we unpacked. Marv took over for Brent for the evening. Elise and I went to Cody's Beef and Beans for dinner and the food is as good as ever. We shared a carafe of Burgundy that was great. We returned home and Elise hit the sheets and after Marv left for the evening I called it a night as well. We had a very nice relaxing mini-vacation. Where to next, eh?

Later................

The above photos are just a few. I will include a few more within the next blog entry.

Good Afternoon Jeanne.

Ross, how are things?

Tiger and Marcie, how are you?

Monna, how are you and the boys?

Janice and Frank, how goes it?

Liz, give hubby our best.

Steph, how are you?

Erika, anything new in Germany?

Joe and Mary, how are you?

Sis, what is up for the weekend in A? How is Shaina?