New Year's Trip 2007-08

Left Shandon @ 9am... Arrived Lowell Observatory, Flagstaff, Arizona at 7pm

The Observatory was open late for night sky viewing.  As we were standing in line, on top of a Mountain FREEZING, to see Mars through a 16" McAllister, Steven kept telling us, "You're only going to see a little red dot" and of course he was right...  It was somewhat disappointing but the other telescopes had some great views of the stars and I fulfilled a long time wish to visit an observatory at night.

We then drove down Oak Creek Canyon (a 30 minute winding road down a steep grade).... It was dark and we knew there was something incredible out there, but could not see a thing.  We checked into a beautiful room with plush beds and lots of TV channels.  We were all a little hungry so we went out looking for a restuarant.  Note:  Sedona's night life is, well, Sedate.  The only thing that was open was the Red Planet Diner...  It was a cross between Denny's and Killer Pizza from Mars.   The food was so so, the drinks were watered down, and the waitress was new, but our fellow customers were quite entertaining.    We were sure we had entered the Vortex (Sedona has 4 major ones).   

But we made it back to the Best Western Arroyo Roble safely and slept well.