Episode 41 - Arizona and the Grand Canyon

January 09, 2024

In this episode, we are taking you to two very different places in the state of Arizona. We’ll start off the trip playing golf, we’ll walk through a vibrant downtown, and enjoying the warm weather of Scottsdale. Then we’ll take a train north into the Grand Canyon as we explore beautiful sights, endless nature, and the historic El Tovar hotel. So pack a bag, grab some hiking shoes and your golf clubs and let’s get started on this epic adventure as we check off one of our bucket list places.

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Get our 5 Day Arizona and The Grand Canyon Itinerary Here!

Where we stayed:

Westin Kierland Resort and Spa in Scottsdale, AZ

High Country Motor Lodge in Flagstaff, AZ (don't miss the Nordic Spa Experience which you can book directly by calling the hotel)

If you are taking the train, you can also stay at Grand Canyon Railway Hotel in Williams, AZ

Grand Canyon Railroad Tickets can be reserved here.

In Grand Canyon National Park, we stayed at the Historic and Iconic El Tovar Hotel and I'm so glad we did. Other options if you are taking the train are Bright Angel Lodge, Maswik Lodge, Kachina Lodge & Thunderbird Lodge. Information about all the lodges and dining options can be found here.

Sky Lodge Sedona, Sedona, AZ

Book a rental car here.

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Music Credit

Music by <a href="https://pixabay.com/users/oystudio-24430395/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=music&utm_content=128250">OYStudio</a> from <a href="https://pixabay.com//?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=music&utm_content=128250">Pixabay</a>

Episode Transcript

00:00:00 SPEAKER_01
a sneak peek of this week's episode. The other thing about the Grand Canyon is it's very accessible for people of all ages, right? So even if you, a lot of people think of the Grand Canyon and I'm going to hike into the canyon and I'm going to do this, I'm going to spend the night. You don't have to do that. And it's paved. And not only that, Scott was able to use that scooter and then parts of it, even where the trail veers off a little bit, that has a very flat, flatter paved, right, for handicap access. And that rim trail goes like a long way too. So very accessible.

00:00:35 SPEAKER_00
Scott. And I'm Melissa. And we are the Sunshine Travelers. Our passion is travel and sharing our experiences with those who would enjoy it as much as we do, or those who want to learn more about travel, or even those that just want to live vicariously through our travel stories. No matter where you fall along that journey, get ready to hear about our first-hand experiences as we visit some of the most interesting and amazing places on earth. In this episode, we are taking you to two very different places in the state of Arizona. We'll start off the trip playing golf, we'll walk through a vibrant downtown, and we'll enjoy the warm weather of Scottsdale. Then we'll take a train north into the Grand Canyon as we explore beautiful sights, endless nature, and the historic El Tovar Hotel. So pack a bag, grab some hiking shoes and your golf clubs, and let's get started on this epic adventure as we check off one of our bucket list places.

00:01:35 SPEAKER_00
we've been having some of the same situation here in Florida the last few days or even weeks. One day you're wearing shorts on the golf course, and the next day you have to put on a winter coat just to take the dogs

00:01:46 SPEAKER_01
Yes, that's the way it goes around here in the early part of the year. So you just keep all your different things ready to go. So this trip was originally planned as a trip to Scottsdale for Scott's birthday to stay at the Westin Kirlin Resort and get in a few rounds of golf. And we booked it, I think, probably like June, July, in order just to plan ahead and get that secured. And we'd been seeing this place pop up for several years as like a Westin Vistana Vacation Club, now part of the Marriott Vacation Place, where we could go and stay and we could use some of our points. And Scott, you had actually stayed in the hotel part of it once before, but really just for a meeting.

00:02:26 SPEAKER_00
Yeah, for a conference one time, they held it at the hotel. And I remember it was in the heat of summer and it was hot as blazes.

00:02:35 SPEAKER_01
Yeah, so for that part, we definitely recommend like December. I mean, it was perfect weather. I mean, it was really, really nice when we were there. So the desert golf course is surrounded by mountains. The views are just idealistic. I mean, just absolutely gorgeous. And so the plan was that we would go and play a few rounds and enjoy the town of Scottsdale and just have a few days of long weekend of relaxation.

00:03:00 SPEAKER_00
Well, at least that's how I understood the plan to be.

00:03:03 SPEAKER_01
And so to set the stage for basically the rest of the trip, throughout the year, Scott had been having problems with his foot. But really, right before Thanksgiving, like in November, it had gotten to be where you really like you had been in a boot. And I think we've mentioned this before. You've been in the boot like we took the scooter on the cruise and you just really couldn't put a lot of weight on it. And so we didn't know. I mean, we still plan to take the trip, obviously, because there's plenty of stuff to do, but we didn't really know if we were going to be able to play golf at all. And really it was like day or two before you had been to the doctor and then he said, okay, we need to do some things and just kind of see if we can make this work. So it was really the day or two before. So thankfully Scott had actually thought I had already like made at least one tea time,

00:03:12 SPEAKER_00
like in

00:03:49 SPEAKER_01
not yet. Like all of

00:03:51 SPEAKER_00
this, I guess we should back up just a little bit to say really most of this trip started out in a shroud of secrecy. Melissa said, I am planning something for your birthday, but I'm not going to tell you what it is. But then she had to tell me because she had to book the airline tickets. And so I started seeing things like, you know, a trip from Jacksonville to Phoenix show up in my SkyMiles account.

00:04:18 SPEAKER_01
Yeah, no, and I really said, hey, let's let's go to Phoenix. Let's go to Stutsdale. Let's stay in this particular place. Let's play We've's go to golf. Let's stay Stutsdale. in this particular Let's play place. golf. We've both been wanting to go out there together. And so here's kind of what we can do. And so I just left it at that. But in July, I had actually booked us to go and we were renting a car, but then us to go and take the train into the Grand Canyon and spend a night at the Grand Canyon. And thankfully, so like with the hotel in Scottsdale, I had booked that under my name and Scott didn't, you know, see those reservations and stuff like that. So didn't know, you know, that it wasn't for the whole time and just kind of left it at that. And we didn't really talk about any other plans or anything like that. So. Matter

00:05:02 SPEAKER_00
So. Matter of fact, on the plane to Phoenix, I made the comment, oh, I wonder how far the Grand Canyon is from Scottsdale. I wonder if we could do that as a day trip.

00:05:13 SPEAKER_01
Yeah. And you even looked it up. I think you even went on Google Maps and looked it up. And it's like, oh, yeah, we would have time to drive up there. Because

00:05:16 SPEAKER_00
up. And

00:05:18 SPEAKER_00
Because I knew we were going to have some extra days. I mean, we were staying there for five days. And we'd only talked about playing golf maybe one, two I days. we were mean, staying there for five days and we'd only talked about playing golf one, maybe two days. So I figured, you know, we would have some time to do a day trip.

00:05:32 SPEAKER_01
And so I had honestly kept this a secret. I think there's maybe a couple of people, but I didn't want anybody to be like, oh, Scott, are you excited? You know, forget, are you excited to go to the Grand Canyon or something like that? So I really hadn't told anybody. Yeah. Hey, how

00:05:45 SPEAKER_00
anybody. Yeah. Hey, how was the Grand Canyon? And we hadn't gone on a trip yet.

00:05:50 SPEAKER_01
Yeah. So I really hadn't told anybody. So that was really, that was really difficult because that's a lot of months. And so I just tried to kind of like push it out of my, you know, push it out of my mind and just not even think about it. So. Okay. So we would leave from Scottsdale and then drive to Flagstaff. And one thing that I did do is I did keep that villa for the day that we were going to play golf. Now I ended up telling Scott the night before, but I did keep that day so that we could like, you know, not have to check out and get a shower if we wanted to and that kind of thing. But we would go north to Flagstaff and we stayed at a wonderful place called the High Country Motor Lodge. And we'll talk more about that later. And then the next morning we got up early, drove to the town of Williams. It's about a 30 minute drive. And that's where you take the train into the Grand Canyon. That's called the Grand Canyon Railroad, goes into the south rim of the Grand Canyon and goes, the depot there is at the Grand Canyon Village. And then I actually had booked the historic El Tobar Lodge at the rim of the Grand Canyon, which actually opened in 1905. And I chose that one very specifically. When I had gone with my sisters. We had just gone for the day trip and stopped and we had had lunch there just kind of on a whim. We had seen the train. We had parked close to that, had lunch there. And I just thought, oh, how neat that would be to come back with Scott because he had not been. To take the train in just as a whole different experience. And we're going to talk about some of the, you know, the ins and outs of all of that. And then to stay at that Altovar and some of the other options and stuff like that. And then after taking the train back out the next day, we did make an overnight stop in Sedona, home of the Red Rocks, just to be able to see that. just to be able to see that. Because if you've ever driven from Phoenix North to the Grand Canyon, to Flagstaff, to Lake Powell, and not specifically gone to Sedona, you don't see that from the interstate. And so I just wanted to see that. It was a good kind of like stop off point for after the Grand Canyon. Yeah,

00:08:00 SPEAKER_00
so obviously Melissa put a lot of thought and planning into this. And, you know, to say that I was surprised is really an understatement. I thought we were going to spend our time exploring the town of Scottsdale. I did get a little suspicious when we checked into the Westin and we were only staying for two nights. So something must have been wrong in their reservation system. And I even said to Melissa, I was like, hey, they only have us here for two nights. And that's when she just kind of ignored me and kept on about her business. And so I knew then that something was up.

00:08:38 SPEAKER_01
Yeah, but he was he didn't he didn't push it. I did try to get him to stay in the car. Hey, why don't you stay in the car and I'll go check in real quick. And he went and having it. And I was, it was late. And so I just was like, whatever. I didn't push it. And I was hoping the girl wouldn't say anything, but she did. It was for three nights. Remember? Cause we did. I mean, we know we didn't spend three nights there, but it was for at least three nights. It was for

00:08:56 SPEAKER_00
spend three nights there, but it was for at least three nights. It was for fewer nights than we were going to be there. And so something was suspicious.

00:09:02 SPEAKER_01
That's true. But he didn't push it. So I was glad. So you can see the video on our Instagram page of Scott reading the surprise gift at the hotel. So basically what I did was I ended up writing it in like Apple note. We do a lot of sharing of Apple notes and stuff for the podcast and and planning and different things like that. So I ended up writing in that and sending it to him the night before just so he would know. Because the other thing was I had also changed the tea time. We had discussed what time and then I was like, oh, that's not going to give us enough time to get to Flagstaff and enjoy that hotel. So I ended up pushing it up as well. And so I needed to tell him the night before why. And

00:09:42 SPEAKER_00
so you can find that on your instagram page at sunshine travelers podcast and so i think melissa put that out there i don't know did you do that in a story i did in

00:09:52 SPEAKER_01
i did in the story so as this is released i'll put it in a i'll put it in a reel and so that video will be preserved so yeah that'll be and i can link it here too.

00:10:03 SPEAKER_00
start out with Scottsdale. You know, that's where we flew into Phoenix and took the short drive out to Scottsdale. It's a very trendy and rapidly growing town. There's lots of shopping with a mix of like boutique and high-end stores. And, you know, what we would come to find out is there's Scottsdale and then there's Old Town Scottsdale Old Town Scottsdale I'd say is a lot more like boutiques and stuff like that but then in just Scottsdale you had a lot of high-end retail you know just down from where we were staying at the Westin there was that shopping mall lots of high high end retail there. And so if you are interested in going out there and don't, you know, you don't play golf, there's a ton of shopping that you can do in the Scottsdale area as well.

00:10:55 SPEAKER_01
Yeah. And we actually talked about like this would be a good place for us to take like the whole family. Right. We could do a mix of playing golf. There's like hiking trails. There's a great little train park that they were doing. They had a holiday thing there, but a little like a miniature train park for kids. And then of course the shopping and then just the old town. And so for a week for, you know, a family with kids of all ages, like there would be a lot of different things that you can do. And then of course throughout Phoenix and Scottsdale, and we won't get into a lot of those things because we didn't do them, but there's just, there's so many things to see, botanical gardens and there's zoos. And so there's lots of, there would be lots of activities to be able to do.

00:11:36 SPEAKER_00
Great restaurants and cafes and bars, you know, just scattered throughout both the new and the old town. So, you know, I'm sure you could put together just a whole episode on the foodie scene in Scottsdale. Oh, yeah,

00:11:52 SPEAKER_01
absolutely. And so here's the interesting thing. We have really gotten in the habit of asking people for recommendations. Where should we go? Where should we eat? And things like that. And so the person at the rental car, so we typically use national. And so you just pick your car and then you go out through the gate and then they get your information from you. And so while she was kind of doing that, we just said, Hey, like we have some things that we're doing, but we don't have like super concrete plans. What should we do in the area? And she said, oh, make sure that you go to Old Town Scottsdale. I think she asked where you stay and make sure that you go to Old Town Scottsdale. You want to see that. She even mentioned randomly about a forever jewelry, a permanent jewelry place, which I had just gotten a couple of bracelets and wanted a couple of more. Yes, maybe she had seen my bracelets or something.

00:12:41 SPEAKER_00
wanted a couple of

00:12:45 SPEAKER_01
like, I don't know why she exactly mentioned that. And so that kind of piqued my interest. And I had not been. So the last time we did not go to Old Town Scottsdale. And so I thought that would be a great area to check out.

00:12:56 SPEAKER_00
Yeah. And so we stayed at the Westin Carolyn Resort Villas. This is part of the Marriott Vacation Club now. It's a great place to stay if you're going to be there for a few days and maybe want to pick up a few small grocery items so that you can, you know, fix breakfast or maybe a sandwich, something like that for lunch inside your villa. It does have a small kitchen and refrigerator. We stayed in a one bedroom suite this time. I think they also have like two and three bedroom suites as well. So if you're taking your family there, that's a great option for you to look into. And then there's a full living area and patio that looks out over onto the golf course. I even picked up a mishit golf ball. I kind of thought to myself like, wow, how would anybody possibly hit a ball right here? And then I think we figured it out on the next day. you But, know, how wow, would anybody possibly hit a ball right here? And then I think we figured it out on the next day. But, you know, anyhow, it was a great location for what we were planning to do there. And I would go back and stay there again.

00:13:56 SPEAKER_01
I think we absolutely will. And the pool was really nice. We didn't go and use the facilities. And one of the days, one of the mornings was kind of chilly, but later in the afternoon, I saw people using it. But they had just like a couple of pools. They had hot tubs at night. They had places with fire pits and blankets. And so it was just actually like a really cute area. So I'll post some stuff about that as well and link that just so that you can see. And then just to mention again, so there is a Westin Hotel there as well, which Scott had stayed at. And I actually drove over there and kind of went in the entrance. So it's not really walkable between those two properties, but they do have shuttles. So if you stayed at one and wanted to come to the other or vice versa, like there would be, if you didn't have a car, you know, there would be a shuttle to like take advantage of the restaurants or whatever but they're not really they're not really connected but we like again you know we had access to the villa using our option so that's just a great option for us because it's basically already paid for right free stay and so it's great because it does have laundry and you know cooking if you want

00:15:04 SPEAKER_00
any of those. Yeah. And so I was working the next day. We had taken a lot of great trips this year. And so as I got towards the end of the year, my number of vacation days was really starting to dwindle. And so I had chosen to work one of the days while we were there. And so anyhow, had a great place for me to sit down, do all of my meetings throughout the day. And while I was doing that, Melissa went off and kind of scouted out the old town Scottsdale area. Yeah. And

00:15:35 SPEAKER_01
just explain too for a second, because people might be wondering, oh, why didn't you just, you know, whatever, and then take the day off. So basically the day we flew in could work all day at home and then we could fly since we're on, we live in the Eastern time. And so that's mountain time. So we could basically fly pretty much after

00:15:46 SPEAKER_00
we could

00:15:54 SPEAKER_01
then still get

00:15:55 SPEAKER_00
there at a decent time.

00:15:57 SPEAKER_01
Yeah. We even still got there at a decent time for sure. Cause it's like what 30, 45 minutes, something like that from the airport. And then you could work the next day. And then when you got off and got finished working, like we could like immediately start enjoying Scottsdale. So that would kind of be why, since you work remote, you have that ability, that possibility that that's just what we decided to do. It just kind of gave us a little bit more time there. And you still got to work. We've talked about

00:16:19 SPEAKER_00
got to work. We've talked about this in other episodes. You might look and say, how the hell do these people travel so much? Do they not work? But, you know, for me, I can work from anywhere. You know, I'm a fully remote employee. Matter of fact, when I'm working from our house, I'm working remotely, right? So it's no different if I work in my house or work somewhere else. And that's what we'll often do is I will go and spend my day working. And then in the afternoon, when we get finished, just like if we were at home, we go off and do the things that we want to do. Matter of fact, we're planning a trip right now for Europe in the spring. And there's going to be quite a few of those days where I'm going to just work so that we're not, I'm not burning up my vacation time. And then the evenings and afternoons, we can go off and do stuff.

00:17:09 SPEAKER_01
And you may ask, okay, so why are you doing that? But our, our daughter and her family, this is a trip that they wanted to take. And they said, Hey, kind of, we haven't done this on our own. We've got the kids, you guys have done this. Would you mind coming to, you know you know help us like some of the costs will be split like as far as hotels and stuff like that and we'll obviously talk about this trip so that that would be why it's not like okay this is the vacation so that would be kind of like the reason why we would do something like

00:17:38 SPEAKER_00
but even as we think about doing some slow travel and stuff like that i think it would be the same, but that's, you know, we've spent enough time on that. Now let's move on. So at the end of the day, Melissa, you came back, you picked me up and then

00:17:53 SPEAKER_01
old town. Yeah. So I had actually spent the day. We had found a place to go for breakfast and then basically dropped him off. And I just wanted to kind of check out the area. I wanted to drive down to that old town Scottsdale and just kind of scout out a few things to have an idea of maybe where we wanted to go down to that old town Scottsdale and just kind of scout out a few things to have an idea of maybe where we wanted to go. And that would make it a little quicker once he got off work. So then, yeah, so I did that and then came back and picked you

00:18:16 SPEAKER_00
you also went and found that permanent jewelry place that she had mentioned to you. I think it was called Truly Blessed Jewels or something to that extent

00:18:26 SPEAKER_01
old town scottsdale is really i felt like this is how i describe it a mash-up of what seemed like a few different areas so one of them looked like it was like the old wild west town and it looked like it had a lot of like artisan type things and then a couple of streets that were just filled with shops and restaurants where like the storefronts looked like almost vintagey or whatever. And just a mishmash of, you know, jewelry shops and restaurants and vintage shops and art and just all kinds of things, but just white buildings and just really neat, like an old, you know, like an old town. And, you know, not like the new shopping centers that you see, like an old downtown kind of area. So that was really neat. And then it really connects to like a high end shopping area where they've put, like almost made a river kind of like have a viaduct and they've got some bridges and, you know, restaurants that line it. So it's a really nice happening, like little, you know, downtown area. And this ended up being Friday night, Thursday night. I can't remember Thursday night, I guess it ended up being. And so even on a Thursday night, you know, right before the holidays, like it was, it was pretty busy with people doing, you know, Segway tours. And you could, you know, tell people going out to dinner and different things. Yeah.

00:19:48 SPEAKER_00
it was right before Christmas. So the town was all lit up and decorated for Christmas. It was really a nice place. But while we were at the jewelry store, Melissa, once again, like we said, we like to ask people questions. And so she asked the young girls who worked there said, you know, do you have any recommendations of places locally that we should go and eat?

00:20:10 SPEAKER_01
They were like, oh, we're going to get a piece of paper and we're going to write down all these places for you. And because they did start naming off places. And then that's when she was like, oh, we're going to write them down because, of course, I would want to be like on my phone because I'm not going to remember them. She came up with what seven or eight places and not just she was like this one for breakfast and this is what you need to order and stuff like that. And they were talking amongst themselves and they were so excited. So that's neat. You

00:20:29 SPEAKER_00
stuff like

00:20:33 SPEAKER_01
just ask people for recommendations because you really do. They get excited for the things that they enjoy and then sharing those. So I will actually I ended up taking a picture of it. So in case I lost that piece of paper. So I'll end up listing those in the show notes. Obviously we didn't have time to visit, but one of them, but we definitely want to go back and then maybe that will help you too, to kind of pick some of those places.

00:20:56 SPEAKER_00
we did choose one of them. We ate at the Montauk and we laughed because it's like beach and ocean inspired things. And even some of the menus seem to be ocean inspired. But we're sitting in the middle of Arizona. So maybe it has to do with that, you know, not having oceanfront property in Arizona. You know, maybe the song kind of led to their menu and their decor and stuff like that just a little bit. And I actually saw several places that

00:21:24 SPEAKER_01
were like this, that look like, oh, that looks really beachy, you know, restaurants that we passed and stuff like that. But there were so many along that main street that just looked like they were super cute. So then we, after dinner, we just walked around a little while. We walked in that area where the little river place was and enjoyed the Christmas lights and stuff like that.

00:21:46 SPEAKER_00
So that was just a great place. Now, the next morning we got up, well, actually both mornings, we chose to just go out to breakfast for, you know, somewhere locally. And this was really just kind of doing a quick Google search of what was in the area. And we found a couple little small like cafe type things where we could go and get some local breakfast. And so that's near the Cureland area. And so if you want to know what those are, the first morning we ate at Perk Eatery. And then surprisingly, what we found out after we got in there is that Perk had been on diners and drive-ins and dives, which seems to be like a thing for us. We seem to pick a lot of these places that were on that show.

00:22:35 SPEAKER_01
Yeah. So what's funny is I guess like there's a certain logo from that show. And I noticed it hanging on the wall. And I'm like, oh, hey, look, this was on the show show too, because we had seen the same thing at the place in Jamaica. And funny enough, we asked the waiter for some recommendations. And then on their menu, specifically in like big boxes, they have the two things that he tried. And, you know, if you're familiar with the show, and then they have them on the menu, and he pointed those out as well. So I just thought that was interesting. So we've actually, we've talked about three of them now on the podcast, but we've actually been to four places that have been on the show.

00:23:14 SPEAKER_00
And so in the next day, we went to Snooze. It's AM eatery. So I guess a morning eatery, which had a very interesting all day drinking and cocktail vibe to it. Matter of fact, the lady sitting next to us, because there weren't any seats or tables available, and we sat at the bar. We laughed because they had obviously gone and dropped their kids off at school, headed straight to this place, and dove right into the cocktails.

00:23:43 SPEAKER_01
Yeah, so that place is just really known. You know, not just Mimosas, Bloody Marys, but anything and everything that you can think of. And so that's kind of what it's known for. And it's in that high-end shopping area that was right near the hotel. So it was convenient for us because we actually were doing this right before we played golf and not really sure what the situation was at the, you know, at the golf club and for breakfast. So we just decided to try out this local place. So it was very good. It was very interesting. Definitely would be on a place like if you wanted to try their cocktails and stuff like that, but very

00:24:16 SPEAKER_00
Yeah. No, there, I think we both had the pancakes. So they had assortment of pancakes with different toppings and stuff like that. That was one of their big things on the menu. And so we both ordered those. Well, we definitely could have spent our whole time, the whole five days in Scottsdale. We didn't even scratch the surface. So we're just going to pop that back up on the list of places to visit, maybe go back out and play a little more golf, but definitely one of those places that we would highly recommend. So let's talk a little bit about the golf. We had planned to play at the Kierland Golf Club. It is an absolutely gorgeous course. It's a great mixture of desert and greenery, and we had a beautiful day to play on it.

00:25:05 SPEAKER_01
Yeah, we absolutely did. It was phenomenal weather. And I should point out too, there's lots of golf courses out there. So you have no shortage of places to play. And we noticed even the drive from there into Old Town Scottsdale, there's lots of older resort type places that had golf courses and stuff like that too. So tons and tons of places to play. We just, it was kind of like, this is where we were staying, kind of had been on our list to do. And so we just said, you know what, let's just go ahead and play

00:25:39 SPEAKER_00
we had gotten paired up with these two guys, Jeff and Chad. They were friends who were playing around. And, you know, one of my fears and, you know, Melissa kind of mentioned that we had planned to play later in the day. And that's because, you know, we're not super fast players going first thing in the morning. That's when you get a lot of your diehard golf people out there. And so I was like, so afraid that we were going to get paired up with these people who just wanted to go, go, go, go, go, go, you know, play at the fastest pace possible. But we got paired up with Jeff and Chad, and these guys were absolutely awesome. They were out there and they just wanted to have a good time and, you know, hang out with one another. And they played very similar to the way that we

00:26:23 SPEAKER_01
do. Yeah. So they were just great. And they were very gracious as well. Just, you know, impatient with with us. And you, you know, yeah, you had a brace on your foot and just hobbling. I was definitely playing

00:26:31 SPEAKER_00
yeah, you had a brace on your foot and just hobbling. I was definitely playing slower just because of the brace. Now, as far as my play, I was playing some of the best golf that I'd ever played in my life. I was hitting really great shots. All of my tee shots were, you know, right on track, but you know, it just took longer because I had that ankle brace on and, you know, towards the end of the day that things start, you know, my ankle started to kind of stiffen up and get sore. And so I was a little bit slower in my pace than normal.

00:27:02 SPEAKER_01
And what I was surprised at, because you think obviously like you're in the desert and stuff like that. So like, how do they do these golf courses without it just being like a water hog? But it's just very interesting how they've constructed these so that there is a lot of rock, right? So like you have your, your tees and your fairways and your greens, but then you do have like a lot of rocky areas and things like that to conserve the water. And then yes, there are some water features, but not overwhelming, but they again, position them in such a way that it makes it effective and a lot of fun.

00:27:35 SPEAKER_00
So true to form throughout the day, we had a lot of conversations with Jeff and Chad about, you know, what else should we do? We told them we were going to the Grand Canyon. And so they made recommendations about that as well in different places along the way. So, you know, we captured all of that information as well. But, you know, as far as the course, it's a fairly easy course to play. And that was great for us. You know, sometimes, though, it was a little bit difficult to play, but just because of the beautiful scenery. You know, you got these beautiful mountain ranges just in the back with the desert style golf course that you're playing on. And so it was it was wonderful.

00:28:17 SPEAKER_01
Yes, highly recommend. And you can see why it's really a place where people go and play golf because it is it is just absolutely gorgeous. why

00:28:25 SPEAKER_00
really a place where people go and play golf because it is it is just absolutely gorgeous so after a round of golf we went to the brittle brush bar and grill at the course it's right there off the the pro shop and they had a terrific lunch there come to find out we could have had breakfast but you know we would we didn't know we't sure. But if you're staying at the West End or in that area, I would highly recommend that you go there and have lunch. It was a really nice lunch. And then, matter of fact, on the back end, they came and they were bringing out a sample of some of their desserts and they were giving out those samples. So we would add that to a recommended list. If you were in the area, there's plenty of options for you. So yeah, but it's

00:29:10 SPEAKER_01
worth going to, you know, a lot of times you're like, Oh dude, and it's not really at the hotel. It's at the golf club. But do you eat there since it is? And that one part of the hotel, but yeah, that one was great. And, you know, looking out over the golf course as well from, we sat on the outside patio and I would mention here that you definitely want to rent a car i would think like it wasn't even a question for us like if you're traveling like 30 40 minutes from the airport and then just being able to go different places they do have a shuttle that would get you like right around the resort but wouldn't you say scott that you would definitely want to rent a car to just be able to experience more of the area and see things. So

00:29:46 SPEAKER_00
So it's a really large area. So like walking, it's not an option, especially if you're there in the warmer months, you're not going to be walking anywhere.

00:29:54 SPEAKER_01
No. And I would say from where we were, Old Town Scottsdale was probably 20, 25 minutes there. So then we left the course and packed up our things and we drove to Flagstaff. So that was what, about two, two and a half hours, I think north, where we were going to stay at the High Country Motor Lodge. And I'm not really sure how I found this place, but here was kind of my thought process is we wanted to be sort of near Williams. I had looked at, so in Williams where you have the Grand Canyon Railway, they have a Grand Canyon Railway Hotel, but it just was like for the price they charge, I was just kind of like, eh, it just didn't do it for me. So somehow I ran across this High Country Motor Lodge. I was like, oh, Flagstaff. And it's only like 30 minutes because like literally the place in the pictures was so cute like the outside is cute it's on route 66 like the pictures of the bar and it had a restaurant and stuff like that so I was just and it was like probably less than half of the price so I think

00:31:01 SPEAKER_00
I'm gonna take exception to to that. I mean, when you first pull into the parking lot looks, well, it was dark. So let me, let me say that, but it looks like a old motor lodge, right? Just cause all you could see is the, the outline of it or whatever. And so I don't know that if you're pulling up there in the dark, you're going to be like, oh, this place is really cute because by the way, the building was all painted black. So it was black. And then Flagstaff is one of those dark skies cities or whatever. So there's not a lot of, you know, exterior illumination, black buildings. So I don't know if I'm going to say that.

00:31:45 SPEAKER_01
illumination black building so i don't know if i'm gonna say that the well i had seen the pictures

00:31:50 SPEAKER_00
so well

00:31:50 SPEAKER_01
but the back yeah so then when you can see the back and stuff like that so it was just it was just less than half of the price and so i was like you know what we can get up the next morning and drive 30 minutes and that's that's what we decided

00:32:03 SPEAKER_00
to do. And let me add, though, is during during the day, it is super cute on the outside. And that's what Melissa had seen in pictures. So, you know, I like to be be able to prepare you guys for what you're going to actually see when you pull up, because we're going to run into the same conversation a little bit later when we start talking about Sedona.

00:32:26 SPEAKER_01
So then let's go back to so the fact that Scott was saying it's like an old motor lodge. So it is an old converted lodge just off Route 66. So you could imagine that a lot of families stayed here years ago on their journey across road trips in Arizona to the Grand Canyon, across the country.

00:32:44 SPEAKER_00
And let's paint a visual picture. So it's one of those maybe two or three stories high. All of the rooms are on the outside. You know, you enter from the outside of the building, right? This is the kind of motor lodge that we're talking about. You see them now. They're run down. They charge by the month or something like that. That's what these places look like normally today, but not this place. Yeah.

00:33:12 SPEAKER_01
have come in and completely renovated. The rooms are done up super retro. So there's obviously things that they couldn't really do, like mess with the ceilings or just different things like that. But they made the furnishings super comfortable and then just super cute. There was an old, no, there's an old, there was a retro tape player and they even had tapes that you could use. It was just the decor was very well thought out, thought out. And then they had just little touches, like their keys were personal, like they weren't just little touches like their keys were like they weren't just generic like room keys that just they were super cute. Right. Because it's like a one off like boutique experience place. And then, like I mentioned, the lobby is just cutely decorated. The bar area, there's fire pits outside. So you can imagine there's a lot of people, you know, hang out here after hiking. Like I mentioned, they have breakfast you can pick up. They have, you know, food that you can you can pick up as well so they do a really great job and for the price point yes it is a motor lodge so basically it is a motel but they do a really great job for for what it is so in addition

00:34:18 SPEAKER_00
they also had a nordic spa and that was something that you've you know learned more I think, a couple of days before we went.

00:34:25 SPEAKER_01
went. Yeah, I didn't even see this on their website. And so I had booked this through booking.com. And so they had sent me a message and said, hey, here's some of our other experiences if you're interested. And so I was like, oh, well, that might be really cool, especially not knowing yet when I booked this, if we were going to play golf. So I just called them and said, hey, do you have anything available? So basically what that Nordic Spa experience is, is that you have like basically a circuit. So a sauna. And then you do either the cold plunge in their pool or you get under the cold shower. And then they have a jacuzzi. And then you can sit by the fire. Now it was very cold out, you know, when you're wet. Flagstaff,

00:35:04 SPEAKER_00
know, when you're wet. Flagstaff, I think is somewhere in the neighborhood of five to 6,000 feet above sea level. So, you know, it's up kind of higher elevation and there's like a 35 degree temperature drop between Phoenix and Flagstaff. Yeah. And then especially

00:35:20 SPEAKER_01
with it being dark, but we decided to do that. It was not super expensive. I can't remember exactly, but I want to say it was like seventy five dollars for like up to six people to do that for right around an hour. One thing that

00:35:34 SPEAKER_00
say is if you're going to do this, remember to take some flip flops. Like, I don't know if they didn't say that. I had not planned to take flip flops with me.

00:35:44 SPEAKER_01
Yeah, me

00:35:45 SPEAKER_00
And so, you know, all I had was tennis shoes or my golf shoes. Those were the two choices of footwear that I had. And so going between the circuits, you have to walk through like these dirt areas. And so you get your feet wet, then you're walking through this dirt. And so you end up with a really muddy mess. And I feel sorry for whoever had to clean the little, you know, sitting area after we left there because you can't help it. You just track in mud.

00:36:14 SPEAKER_01
Yeah. So it's almost like if they could provide something like that. But no, I didn't. And then they give you like water, a couple of kinds of water with electrolytes. So it's just a great experience. And so the goal of like a Nordic spa experience is to like detox and then relax and right, because you're sweating in the sauna and then you're doing the cold plunge and then you're relaxing. And it was also really neat though, to look at the stars, you know, as we were enjoying the jacuzzi. So highly recommend that. I would have loved to have spent at least two nights here, right? So if you were going to do some hiking around Flagstaff, or if you're going to do the Grand Canyon and you're just going to drive, then you could stay there, do the Grand Canyon, and then come back there. That would be very doable

00:36:57 SPEAKER_00
in a day. Yeah, absolutely. Or Sedona. And, you know, it'd be a little bit of a drive, but realistically could hike around Sedona and stay there in that Flagstaff area. You know, great place. We did have dinner at the hotel. We sat in their bar lounge area. And, you know, the lounge, it takes up most of their lobby. But, you know, comfortable couches and chairs and tables and stuff that they've got set up in kind of an intimate atmosphere. And so, you know, you go and you order at the little cafe thing. They give you a number. You go have a seat, maybe get a drink at the bar, sit down, relax, and then they bring your food out to you. And

00:37:39 SPEAKER_01
I guess we should say when it's dinner, it's not like anything fancy. So they had pizzas, flatbread type things, sandwiches. I had chili was their special and they had chili with cornbread. I don't really remember what else because those were the things that kind of caught my eye. So nothing super fancy. But if you just want to be there and get there. And that's what we wanted to have some time to just enjoy being at the hotel because we had played golf and we had driven. And that was kind of just part of what we had planned to do. And then, like I said, they did have a bar.

00:38:09 SPEAKER_00
Yeah. So once again, I think you put a lot of pictures out on Instagram from the High Country Motor Lodge. So I would encourage you guys to go out and take a look.

00:38:20 SPEAKER_01
Yeah, I certainly did. So I'll definitely link those so that they're easy to find. But yeah, I would say stay there if you are going in Flagstaff.

00:38:33 SPEAKER_00
We absolutely loved it. And the people were just super nice. to a town called Williams. So Williams is a town that's almost completely supported through that tourism industry. And so we might even recommend that you look at Williams and see, we didn't even look to see, was there like a little boutique hotel or something like that where you can stay like Melissa mentioned the Grand Canyon Railway or Railroad Hotel and not wanting to pay the price to stay there. But if you could find like an Airbnb or something like that right there in Williams, especially in the downtown, I would highly recommend that because Williams has a super cute downtown area. We just didn't have time to spend any time there. But

00:39:28 SPEAKER_01
tuned because they are going to share some advantages that you would have if you stayed at that Grand Canyon Railway Hotel in a second.

00:39:36 SPEAKER_00
So the railroad takes you, like we had said earlier, to the southern edge of the canyon. You have beautiful scenery the whole way in and out of the canyon on the railroad. We recommend the observation car. So we stayed in the Fred Harvey, or we rode in the Fred Harvey car. And it's like this bubble. Think of the cockpit on an old aircraft, right? The glass with the metal straps that go over it and the rivets and stuff like that. That's what this observation deck looks like on this rail car. And so it's up above the rail car. You have to actually go up some stairs. They had some couches set up and they had regular seats. They had a place where you could get some snacks and things like hot chocolate and coffee, hot tea, things like that that were set up. You just get to sit up there and relax as the train's going. And then, you know, they have a hostess. Her job's there to give you a little bit of information. And then she does like a bar service.

00:40:45 SPEAKER_01
Yeah, so I highly recommend that. I think they have that in a couple of classes. So this was the observation deck in the parlor class. And then they also have an observation deck in the first class as well. So this was in the parlor class, which gave us access to, I think it's the whole two cars at the end. But then we were actually able to go downstairs to the one on the very back and go out on the little, I don't know, what do you call that? The little deck, the balcony as the trains go in and be able to see from like, see the back, right? As well to see the scenery from the back. So you have access to that, anybody in

00:41:15 SPEAKER_00
As well to see the scenery from the back.

00:41:20 SPEAKER_01
it was not sold out. So, I mean, here I had planned since July, but just that timeframe was not sold out. We really had a lot of freedom to move around. We could move from one side of the train to the other to take pictures, then of course go up and down. But I imagine obviously if, you know, in the summertime and super peak tourist season, it's sold out and you wouldn't have that much freedom. You also want to make sure to, you know, book well in advance, And then but. just You finally,. also want to make sure you to, book well know, in advance.

00:41:45 SPEAKER_00
just finally, if you're going to do this trip, do plan to spend a few hours there in Williams. You know, like I said, it was just a really cute town. And if we had had time, we would have spent some more time there. Because

00:41:58 SPEAKER_01
they do have a couple of breweries, I think they said. You know, obviously some restaurants. You know, and then they not only had that Grand Canyon Railway Hotel, but they, we did see a few other little, you know, like chain hotels, like Scott said, I don't know about boutique hotels or anything like that, but yeah, definitely. No, I was talking

00:42:13 SPEAKER_00
No, I was talking about in the little town of Williams. Right, right,

00:42:17 SPEAKER_01
right, right, right. If they had anything right there, but like Scott mentioned, like that, they said, this is basically our economy because Williams, you're not, you don't go by Williams to go to the Grand Canyon, right? A lot of people come up through Phoenix, you go through Flagstaff, you go. So like that town is not going to be supported by people going to the Grand Canyon other than the train. So

00:42:39 SPEAKER_00
kind of mentioned some, you said you would come back to the issue of not staying at the hotel.

00:42:45 SPEAKER_01
Yeah. So we decided that we would leave around 7.30. We would get there at 8. Surely that would be enough time to pick up the tickets because it said, you know, the train leaves at 8.30. So I thought, okay, that's enough time to pick up the tickets. So if you are in the town of Williams, or you stay at the Grand Canyon Railway Hotel, you can actually pick up your tickets the day before. So they had some couple of options about picking that up, but we weren't there. So we didn't have that option. And so that would have been a bit less stressful. I would say give yourself a little bit more time than that. The line kind of got backed up and they had some people that were trying to buy tickets. And so it was just like a little bit like, oh my gosh, are we going to be able to do this? And then we had a couple of bags since we were spending the night or we actually taken just one. There was one roll on bag that I guess if we had had to, we could put it on with us. So I was asking her about the tag for that. So here's the other advantage too. So pick up your tickets. But then also if you stay at the Grand Canyon Railway Hotel and then you're staying at a hotel inside the park, they will come to your room at the Grand Canyon Hotel, get your bag, put it on the train, then take it to the other hotel. So that would be the other advantage. It's kind of more of like a seamless experience and you can kind of have time to organize all that. So that would be the advantage. So if you don't want to drive that morning and have all that, that all would be the advantage. So if you, if you don't want to drive that morning and you know, have, have all that, that, that all would be done for you.

00:44:08 SPEAKER_00
wouldn't get too caught up in it because really that's just the luggage transfer and make sure your luggage gets to your hotel and to your room. They had a baggage car where they just took the bags. They put the bags in the baggage car. And when you got back, they just put them, or when you got to the they would destination, have just put it there on the baggage And when you got car. they just put back, or when you got to the them, destination, they would have just put it there on the thing. You could have picked it up and taken it yourself. So I wouldn't worry so much about the, you know, the, the baggage or the luggage tags and stuff like that. It's more of a convenience than anything else. But that train is a train and it has a schedule and it does not deviate from that schedule. So if it says it leaves at 830, it is leaving at 830.

00:44:50 SPEAKER_01
because I called Scott and I'm like, not really sure what we need to do. We need to get the bag. You've got your scooter. And he was like, well, surely they won't leave people, but they will leave you. And so he went on and I went and parked the car real quick and basically ran to make sure that I got back to the train. So I think that that morning of they need to do something. So if you for the Grand Canyon Railway, like they need to do something where they have will call only window. They had two people working and both of them. Most of the time I was standing there, were like helping people buy tickets. And it's like, they need one that's just like, here's the tickets. Because there was a lot of people behind me that I'm sure that were way more in a panic than I was. So that was the only thing, but it worked out

00:45:35 SPEAKER_00
fine. So once we got to the Grand Canyon, we stayed at the historic El Tovar Lodge. This is a U.S. historic national landmark. It's considered the crown jewel of the National Park Lodges, you know, completed in 1905. So let's just kind of pause there for a second, realize that this place was built in 1905. It was really the height of when people were starting to explore the area of the Grand Canyon. And so by train. Yeah. By train. That's

00:46:08 SPEAKER_01
That's what it would be. It would be also by train. Yeah. They would

00:46:10 SPEAKER_00
They would have taken that train into the Grand Canyon. But, you know, that lodge was built to give people a place to stay once they got to the canyon. Yeah.

00:46:21 SPEAKER_01
So it was it was just something that I had seen because I had been there. We had eaten there. And I was like, if we're going to do this, this is where we want to stay. But I will say there are other places. So if you're going to take the train, your choices are basically going to be that El Tovar. You've got the Maswick Lodge, which is about a half a mile away. You've got Thunderbird You've Lodge. got Bright Angel And Lodge. then you've got the Maswick which Lodge, is about a half a mile You've away. got Thunderbird Lodge. You've got Bright Angel Lodge. And then you've got...

00:46:49 SPEAKER_00
Kachina Lodge.

00:46:50 SPEAKER_01
is actually right there at the Alto Bar. And I read that you actually check in at the Alto Bar. So you do have some options at some different price points. The Kachina Lodge actually showed that you had more views of the Grand Canyon, actually.

00:47:04 SPEAKER_00
at the Alto Bar are the The lodge actually showed that you had more views of the Grand actually. Yeah, most. Canyon, but the prices at the Eltowar Yeah, are the most. The prices at the Eltowar are the most. So just be prepared for that. It's not a cheap place to stay. But you're remember, staying at a place where some very famous visitors, including Teddy Roosevelt, Albert Einstein, Sir Paul McCartney, President Bill Clinton, and Oprah Winfrey

00:47:28 SPEAKER_01
come and stayed. I'm sure actually a lot of presidents have visited there because they actually had a little place that was a private dining room and actually had a plaque on it that Biden had visited just recently. So I'm sure it's a place where a lot of presidents have, you know, visited and dined and stuff like that. So just a lot of history, as you might imagine. So for one night, I was like, you know what? If I stay somewhere else, just because it's cheaper, I'm going to say, oh, like that was one thing we wanted to do. So that's what we did.

00:47:53 SPEAKER_00
and trust me, it was a great place. I think we would say that like the furnishings in the rooms could definitely use being updated. But location, it was right on the rim of the canyon. As a matter of fact, we even went out one night in the middle of the night. It was like 3.30 in the morning, and we looked up, and the stars were just so amazing, and so many of them right and matter of fact I used my my phone and my watch I set the phone up on a place where it could just you know be like supported and use my phone to take a picture of the stars and even actually I got and captured a shooting star yeah

00:48:40 SPEAKER_01
so it was just a great like it's a great location you've got some right there. It's just in the heart of the village. And then in that experience, like we were literally the only people around, you know, in the middle of the night, you know, looking at the stars and it was just super convenient.

00:48:56 SPEAKER_00
So while at the Grand Canyon, we did decide to do a sunset tour. It was a charter bus that comes and takes you to a few sites along the rim of the canyon with a tour guide. One of the things

00:49:07 SPEAKER_01
we do in planning experiences on a trip is to reserve our spots using Viator because you can do more with Viator. It's one website with 300,000 plus experiences that you'll remember. We like using Viator because of the free cancellation policy. Plans may change or you may change your mind or find something else that you'd rather do so you can receive a full refund if you cancel at least 24 hours in advance on most experiences. So book your spot with their reserve now, pay later feature. And of course, before booking, we always read the trusted reviews. Viator has 4.3 stars from 140,000 plus Trustpilot reviews. If you go to sunshinetravelers.com slash Viator to explore and book your next local experience.

00:49:51 SPEAKER_00
The tour guide provided information about the history of the Grand Canyon and the Grand Canyon Village and then took us to a couple of scenic overlooks along the way to our final destination. And in the final destination, that's where we were going to see the sunset.

00:50:07 SPEAKER_01
the reason I had booked this particular tour is because we wouldn't have a car. And the way that we went, and actually in December, you can drive out there if you did have a car, but a lot of the year you have to take the free shuttle. So I just thought, oh, this would be a great, we enjoy sunsets. We enjoy photography. It was Scott's birthday. Like what a, what a better way to kind of end the day before we had dinner was to book this experience. Now we need to tell you, I think a little bit about our tour guide, Gail. So in addition to her, like, you know, telling us like she's a wealth of knowledge, she had worked at like several national parks, but she was actually really funny because the Grand Canyon can actually be a fairly dangerous place, right? So a lot of people, you hear about people, you know, taking selfies and doing all these things for social media and then like falling off cliffs and falling off these. So a lot of people like to, I feel like, do some fairly dangerous things on the Grand Canyon. So she talked a lot about, you know, how the rock formations are made and what it's made of and, you know, like what happens and stuff like that. And so a lot of people go out way to the edge. So there was this one particular couple who were all dressed up, like doing some kind of photo shoot with a photographer and they're way out there. And she just kind of told us like, this is not safe because this and this and this and this could happen and stuff like that. So she literally goes right out there to them and continues her little spiel about how unsafe it is and how you know, like what could happen and stuff like that. And you know, I mean, some people would just be like, what the heck and be unfazed. But yeah, they were a little bit like, oh, we're gonna go. But kind of shamed, I guess, you know, so she was, she was funny, but, you know, in a way that was, you know, kind of, you know, letting them know that, yes, this part can, you know, you take one minute too many steps backwards, or this part can kind of crumble beneath your feet. But so the sunset tour takes you in the direction of Hopi Point and Mojave Point. And so she took us to a couple of different viewpoints and just told us some interesting facts before the final stop was the unforgettable view of the sunset over the canyon. And she actually said, don't worry about the clouds. Don't worry about the clouds. Because if you have no clouds, then you don't get all the colors in the sky as the sun is going down. And which is interesting because we always think about, okay, we want to be able to see that sun, you know, set into whatever the horizon is, which we were still able to do, but not ever really having heard that before as far as the sunset.

00:52:34 SPEAKER_00
I learned so much because I can tell you there's a bunch of sunsets we skip locally because we have magnificent sunsets here at our marina that are not far from our house. And we've skipped a bunch because we were like, oh, look at the clouds. You're not going to see the sunset. But she told us and explained to us, you need that cloud cover because that's where the colors, those really rich oranges and pinks and stuff like that, the purples, that's where that gets reflected is into those clouds. So I learned a lot just, you know, hearing her talk about that.

00:53:13 SPEAKER_01
Yeah, I was super glad that we had booked this tour. And so I'll look for a link to see how you can book this specific one or a sunrise one, just depending on what you prefer to do, because it wasn't overly expensive. Again, we didn't have a car. So this was really our only option to get to where that is. But then, like I mentioned, when you are planning your trip, you're going to want to go to the Grand Canyon National Park website and look to see, okay, when I'm going, where am I going to need to park? And like, where am I going to need to take shuttles and just plan for that? Because a lot of the year it would be miserably crowded, just bumper to bumper to bumper cars. So they utilize this free shuttle system that I think is very effective.

00:53:55 SPEAKER_00
And we talked a little bit about being able to see the stars. You know, the reason that the stars are so magnificent there at the Grand Canyon is because it's one of the dark skies parks, right? So there's very little light pollution. And, you know, you're just looking up at the stars and the stars are the light that you're seeing. And so that's one of the reasons that the stars are so fantastic there and that we were able to get those pictures.

00:54:26 SPEAKER_01
And what was interesting, too, is now when we were there, the weather was actually fairly mild. We didn't have a lot of wind. Now, I think the next week they were expecting snow. So you just don't know what you're going to get. But I actually think that it was warmer when we were there than the time I had been in October. That was especially windy. So don't discount it and say, oh, you know, I can't go this time. Now there was snow on the ground, not a lot, but they had already had some snow as well. And so Scott, let's talk a little bit about where to eat or where we ate. There's actually a number of options. And there was somebody that we met who mentioned that this time of year, most of the business in that Grand Canyon Village, which is where these hotels are called, that's where most of their clientele and their business comes from, is from the train. So they have, of course, the El Tovar dining room that is in the El Tovar Lodge. For that, you have to have reservations for lunch and dinner breakfast is first come first serve be aware that there's gaps and so it does like close between breakfast and lunch for a little while and then close between lunch and dinner dinner is also supposed to be dressy now we didn't really take dressy clothes we we ended up taking like one suitcase and just packing a few things. So we would just wear nice jeans with the tennis shoes, walking shoes that we had and a sweater, a nice shirt. And that was fine. But there was a couple having a very fancy dinner. Then they were in their black tie sitting in front of the fireplace. So just like all, you know, all kinds, but we were dressed nicely. I wouldn't recommend probably having on like your hiking clothes or something like that. So highly recommend that. We really enjoyed the food at the Alto Bar. Now it's not like cheap, cheap, but it also wasn't overly expensive. And I thought it was a great value for what it offered. So I was actually really impressed. I thought that was very good food.

00:56:17 SPEAKER_00
Yeah, the food was good and service was good. We ended up eating dinner and breakfast there.

00:56:23 SPEAKER_01
And I had made reservations. So that was his birthday. So I'd made reservations for the dinner. And just a tip too, that if you stay there, you actually are able to make dining reservations ahead of time. Now, I think we, again, we would have been fine, but I'm sure again, at the peak times that you definitely want to make reservations. But then they also have the Harvey House Cafe, which is in the Bright Angel Lodge. It is open also for breakfast, lunch, and dinner with some breaks in between. Casual, they don't take reservations. There's a place called Arizona Steakhouse that's in that Bright Angel Lodge. They take reservations for lunch and dinner. I don't know if that one's open for breakfast, so you have to check, but lunch and dinner. And I think it is more on the dressy side. Then they actually, at the Mazelka Lodge, they have like a food court type thing that is open from breakfast all the way till dinner, no breaks in between, a lot more casual food. And then there's something they call the fountain that had grab and go like snacks and sandwiches, hot dogs and beverages and stuff like that. So lots of options for eating, which I'm sure like is very needed during the peak season, because that is a popular, you know, area of the canyon to visit as well.

00:57:30 SPEAKER_00
Yeah. So if you go to the Harvey House Cafe, we highly recommend their bison burger. I had that, and it was one of the best burgers that I think I've ever had.

00:57:40 SPEAKER_01
So I thought their food options were very well done. And then on another note, just exploring that area right there as well. There's lots of studios, like artist studios for you to explore where course, it takes you, you know, rim to rim in the canyon and, or you can just go down and explore just a little bit. So that area has a lot to see and do as well. And so one thing I wanted to mention too, is that we've talked a little bit about, you know, Scott being on the scooter. The other thing about the Grand Canyon is it's very accessible for people of all right? ages, So even if a lot you, of other thing about the Grand Canyon is it's very accessible for people of all ages, right? So even if you, a lot of people think of the Grand Canyon and I'm going to hike into the canyon and I'm going to do this, I'm going to spend the night. You don't have to do that. And it's paved. And not only that, Scott was able to use that scooter and then parts of it, even where the trail veers off a little bit, then it has a very flat, flatter paved, right, for handicap access. And that rim trail goes like a long way too. So very accessible, which is great, right? So that people can enjoy that. You can come on the train, you can have your car, and you can just really enjoy those views from lots of different viewpoints. So I just wanted to point that out. So encourage you because the Grand Canyon is something that they have made very accessible. And then, of course, the hotel, we ended up staying on the first floor so that Scott could access the room and they had ramps and things like that. They even offered him to, there's a shuttle that could take you from the train up to the hotel if you needed it, because it is a little bit steep, even though there is again a ramp. So everything there is super accessible and you can definitely enjoy it even from a scooter or a wheelchair or if you can't walk super far yeah so on

00:59:34 SPEAKER_00
last day we took the shuttle and like melissa said it's very easy to use and handicap accessible over to the national park visitor center i highly recommend that you visit this area. It's about a 20 minute bus ride from the Grand Canyon Village stop. Here you're going to find a lot of different scenic views that give you an almost 360 view of the canyon. So you're going to go on these points that jut out into the canyon and you have the views like you were out in the middle of the canyon. So highly recommend that. And then just to note that some of these are only accessible by shuttle bus. So if you are driving, you're not going to be able to get there. You need to go park at the visitor center, get on the shuttle bus, take the shuttle bus to these areas. We would recommend the Yavapai, Yaki Point, and Mather Point. Make sure that you don't miss these, right? These are over near the visitor center.

01:00:33 SPEAKER_01
And that Yavapai, they also had a geology museum, just a small geology museum, but it does explain a lot about the Grand Canyon. And then if you walk that rim trail from the Yavapai Jiali Museum in the direction of the village, the Eltowar and all that, they had a really interesting timeline, placards and a timeline to explain the history of the canyon and just different, it's billions of years old. So just explain like how the rocks formed and all kinds of stuff. So it's very educational as well. So

01:01:07 SPEAKER_00
took the train back to Williams and I don't want to ruin the surprise. But if you're on this train and you look out and you see any masked men on horseback on the travel back there, be a little bit cautious. You know, both ways on the train, you've got a lot of entertainment that wanders through the cars. You know, we had the same guy on both directions who came in playing the guitars and a mandolin and, you know, great singer. Make sure that you venture back into the back car like Melissa was talking about. You know, as you go through the scenic countryside, you know, the stewards in the first class cars are top notch and they do such a great job. Matter of fact, we laughed because like they can do drink service faster than a lot of the bars around here that go to sometimes. Oh

01:02:03 SPEAKER_01
my gosh, they were so fast and the drinks were inexpensive too. It was crazy. But what Scott mentioned before at the beginning was they were super helpful. She was like, oh, y'all are spending the night? Where are you staying? Let me give you some tips, that kind of thing. So she really tried to personalize the experience. But even if you're not in the first class, they do have like a food cart that you can go to and purchase snacks and beverages also.

01:02:24 SPEAKER_00
provide you a lot of information about the journey and the history. I would say make sure you have a little cash on hand for the return trip, but I'll just leave it there and not say anything more about that. And

01:02:35 SPEAKER_01
also know that your ticket on the train also includes your national park fee. You don't have to worry about that. I mean, he mentioned, hey, your national park fee, have your ticket if like you know you need it but that's included in that already paid for

01:02:49 SPEAKER_00
the journey by train is about two and a half hours make sure you plan accordingly we didn't know how long that took on the way you know before going and so some of our plans that we made after leaving the park got changed just a little bit or changed the way that we did things just because we we thought maybe it's like an hour long train ride. So it's a two and a half hour train and, you know, plan accordingly. You know, in saying that, we left out of Williams. We didn't spend any time there and we drove straight an hour south of there towards Sedona. And we mentioned how long the train ride is because we didn't know that by the time we got to Sedona, it was already going to be dark. And so you've got these beautiful red rocks all around you. And when we say red rocks, we're talking about, left behind by glaciers. What did we learn in the

01:03:45 SPEAKER_01
did we learn in the Grand Canyon? They call them temples.

01:03:48 SPEAKER_00
Yeah. Right?

01:03:48 SPEAKER_01
Yeah. Right? A lot of them are called temples just because of the way that they look.

01:03:52 SPEAKER_00
These beautiful formations. But we couldn't see any of that because it was pitch black. And Sedona is another one of those dark sky cities.

01:04:00 SPEAKER_01
dark sky

01:04:02 SPEAKER_00
And so it is just pitch black around. So we stayed at the Skyrock Sedona Hotel and paid, you know, a good bit to stay there and mostly so that we would have the views, but we had views of pitch black. Yeah.

01:04:17 SPEAKER_01
a lot of times, like you can pick like with points, like what room and the only ones available, none of the ones with the view were available on points. And I didn't know, you know, like a lot of times we will get an upgrade, but I didn't have any idea of knowing if it would be full or whatever. And again, it was just your birthday. It was the whole experience. This is what I wanted to book. So,

01:04:39 SPEAKER_00
but so we got in there, we got checked in. As usual, we asked for dinner recommendations. And the lady who checked us in suggested a place called The Hudson. And it was her favorite. Matter of fact, she said that's her favorite place to go for birthdays and celebrations, stuff like that. So obviously, that's what we chose and followed her recommendation. This was a wonderful restaurant. You know, we got there. It was very busy. They don't take reservations, but they had a couple of spots at the bar. So we just went in, sat down at the bar and were able to order directly from there. And, you know, as usual, we start chatting up the people around us. And we had this great conversation with, I believe, a new listener to the show. And for about half an hour, we just talked about Travel Bucket List and her Travel Bucket List, what was on it, talked a little bit about the podcast. And then she shared with us some things that she was planning. We shared some of ours. And you just made this great connection with someone while we were sitting there having

01:05:44 SPEAKER_01
our dinner. We would have loved to explore Sedona more. So Sedona had, as we drove through, we could tell just like a cute like downtown area, lots of shops. And then of course, it's known for those rock formations, lots of hiking and stuff like that. So, but I will say the next morning I did wake up early. I mean, not super early. So I would say that's one thing to know about December, especially near that winter solstice is basically the sun was coming up at like 7.15 and setting at 5.15. So you didn't have to get up super early for the sunrise. And, but of course then it got dark really, really early. On the flip side, you don't have all the crowds and you don't have the heat, but you do have shorter days to explore. So I got up early to watch the sunrise and get some amazing photos. And honestly, because it was cloudy the time before the sun actually rose. And as it was like rising was like better than after the sun rose. So that's, you know, just kind of like that you think about sunset, how you have all the colors and stuff after. Just be aware of that for your sunrise town. So now Scott could finally see and appreciate the red rocks.

01:06:59 SPEAKER_00
Yeah. So, you know, we saw the sunrise. We got up. We got ready. We went and grabbed some breakfast at a place called the Wildflower Cafe. It kind of reminded me of a Panera Bread. It was a local chain cafe. Good coffee, good pastries, breakfast sandwiches, things like that. So then we left. We headed out towards Phoenix to catch our flight back to Jacksonville. We stopped along the way at a few amazing Cathedral Bell Rock. viewpoints, Rock, You those were some of the know, places where we we just have to stop said, and oh, take a look at this and get some pictures. Matter of we might even recommend that you stay on this side of Sedona in this area near fact, the village of Oak Creek versus downtown Sedona. Let me just tell you, I don't think it matters where you're at in Sedona. You're going to have some magnificent views when the sun's, but we just felt like that was maybe a little less congested area. The prices for lodging was a lot cheaper down towards that area. And it's going to be where you want to be if you were going out there to do some hikes and get some of those photographic places in and stuff like that. And you're

01:08:17 SPEAKER_01
about like 10 minutes too. It's not like it's far. Yeah. So it's super close. The Red Rock Visitor Center is not far from there. So you could check that out. And then the places that we pulled over were places where people were pulling over to hike and stuff like that. But great places for for photo ops. So I mean, you could spend I mean, you could probably spend a whole week at least here or more. Right. There's a there's a bunch of hikes. But we probably could definitely have enjoyed at least two or three days, even with you not being able to hike. So I guess that that was our really our only thing is that for the price that we paid to like stay in Sedona and not really get to spend a lot of time there was a bit much because Sedona is not cheap. Lodging is not cheap. Food is not cheap. But it was it was good to, you to you know okay here's a place we want to come back

01:09:06 SPEAKER_00
put it back on that list of places to visit so i guess

01:09:09 SPEAKER_01
we would say too because mentioning williams is that if you maybe if you had to pick might have been a better choice for us to say okay let's check out williams right and then some other time we come back to the donut we could have like we were right there the sun hadn't gone down yet. We could have like supported their economy a little bit more. So maybe when you're

01:09:30 SPEAKER_00
decide. So it is about a two, two and a half hour drive back to Phoenix from Sedona. Make sure you give yourself a little extra time for returning a rental car. It's like a 15, 20 minute train ride from the airport to the car rental place. So you need to make sure that you're accounting for that. A lot of airports, you can just drop the car and go into the terminal, not here. And then security lines were really crazy at the airport when we went through. Now, granted, it was the week before Christmas. So I think maybe some people had started their, before Christmas. So I think maybe some people had started their, you know, Christmas travels, but it was a very, very busy airport. And I could imagine that during the summer, it would be very similar.

01:10:13 SPEAKER_01
I imagine so. And we don't talk about like TSA and clear and all that are very often, but just check and see a lot of credit cards offer like a TSA benefit every how often you have to renew it and that credit card will actually pay for that. So just look and see if that happens to be especially if you have one of the travel cards if you're you know not taking advantage that basically what happens is super easy once it sees that TSA charge it basically just credits that. So there's nothing that you have to

01:10:44 SPEAKER_00
which is really cool. Yeah. And some of the airline programs as well, the loyalty programs include clear. So, and we'll pay for that. And just to give

01:10:52 SPEAKER_01
an example, I think they said the security line was an hour and a half and we waited maybe 15 or 20 minutes, which we were like, Oh, this is so long, but hour and a half, you guys, I don't, I'd have a hard time traveling

01:11:04 SPEAKER_00
what happened is we knew we had such limited time and there's no we had done it on the way out there I was I was willing my golf bag I had the scooter I had a backpack for my laptop stuff and then I had my e-bags backpack right and so you know I just told Melissa I I was like, let me drop you off. You go check in all of our luggage, the golf clubs, things like that. I'll go return the car and then take the train back and I will meet you at the gate. So that's how we split it up. And it all worked out. We had plenty of time, but it was because we had the TSA pre-check and could get through there a lot faster.

01:11:45 SPEAKER_01
Yeah, absolutely. Scott, as we wrap this up, I want to just give a couple of tips and a couple of other things that I would have done differently as far as booking. So when I booked the Altovar, when I booked the train tickets, there wasn't any way to bundle that as a package, like the Grand Canyon Wellray. I saw that, the Maswick Lodge. I think in hindsight, I maybe would have called and said, hey, is this part of the same thing? I'm not seeing this on the website. Is there a discount for kind of like booking this stuff together? And then maybe having some of that link? I don't know. I like to do things online. I think it's a lot of people like to do things online. It's just easier. But that may have been a possibility.

01:12:22 SPEAKER_00
all destination locations, we asked Melissa, what should you pack? And this one's especially important because you're going to have a couple of very different climates to consider on this trip.

01:12:34 SPEAKER_01
so this is not a packing list if you're like going to hike the Grand Canyon or spend the night, like raft the Grand Canyon or spend the night, you know, in the canyon or anything like that. This is specifically for visiting it, you know, staying at the, at the hotels. So you definitely though want comfortable hiking or walking shoes, even if you're just walking that rim trail, just so that you have comfortable shoes, comfortable socks. You could go down that Bright Angel Trail just a little bit. You definitely want to have that. And if you're going to the canyon and to Flagstaff anytime during the year that elevation is about 7,000 feet you're going to want a jacket or pullover of some sort at night right it might get warm during the day you might be doing some hiking activity you know have a t-shirt or whatever you're going to want to have some kind of pullover we in December if you have you know some kind of warmer jacket and I would say even from October I remember in October before you know, some kind of warmer jacket. And I would say even from October. I remember in October before we had like some kind of beanie cap. You want to have some gloves if your hands get cold and some kind of jacket or vest or something like that for the for the evenings. We

01:13:36 SPEAKER_00
are the sunshine travelers.

01:13:38 SPEAKER_01
then, of course, you know, jeans or leggings or hiking pants. I think, Scott, you had jeans and hiking pants as well. Just, you know, depending on the months, if it's going to be warmer and you're going to be doing some activity, you could definitely probably have some like hiking shorts or, you know, wicking shorts or something like that. But be aware that those temperatures can drop in the evenings. Now, there is no shortage, though, of gift shops. So if you want a sweatshirt from the Grand Canyon, you know, they've got to or hats or gloves or, you know, those kind of things, too. So I also had sweaters and a dressier sweatshirt that I could laver over a tee for comfort. And you also definitely want to pack a water bottle. We had water bottles with us, but in our, like, rush to, like, get everything situated with the tickets and stuff like that. We left them in the car. And so there was one time at the hotel, she was like, Oh, you can refill your water bottles, you know, in the little thing. And we're like, Oh, well, we, we forgot them. And so they do really do expect you to have water bottles and they have places to refill them. So at the elevation in the desert, you're also good. You're going to want to have water. We just didn't want to purchase one, but they had ones that obviously you could purchase a water bottle, bring that. So here's another tip, though, if you're taking the train and you're doing this as part of a bigger trip is we didn't also take everything with us. We packed what we would need for that one overnight into one suitcase. We did take our backpacks that had laptops and stuff like that. We just didn't want to leave those, you know, locked in the car just in case. But we did not bring like a bunch of clothes. And obviously, if you're going to play golf, you're going to need your golf attire and golf shoes and stuff like that. Now, when we did play golf that day, it was rather warm and I ended up taking off my sweater, but I did start off with a light sweater.

01:15:19 SPEAKER_00
think the Grand Canyon should be on everyone's bucket list, regardless of where you live. It is worth the journey. We were able to watch the face of a young man as he saw the canyon for the very first time. He was absolutely speechless and had tears forming in his eyes. It's truly that majestic. I would love to hear from you about places that you've been that gave you the same sensation. Send me an email at scott at sunshinetravelers.com and let me know what your favorites are. You never know, it may find its way onto our bucket list. We are always inspired by your travel stories.

01:15:56 SPEAKER_01
when we are booking our journey, we like to use booking.com. We did the High Country Motor Lodge with that. And as Scott mentioned, we're currently booking a trip that includes six people and looking on booking.com and putting in four adults and two children. And we're coming up with like apartment type places, right? For way cheaper than we would see hotels. So you can also discover your perfect stay with booking.com where every trip becomes a memorable journey. Choose from over a million properties worldwide, from cozy country homes to sleek city apartments. Find the best deals with their price match promise. Enjoy great stays at lower cost. And flexibility matters, so book with confidence, knowing that you can cancel with ease. You can also make informed choices with millions of reviews from fellow travelers. Start your adventure now. Visit sunshinetravelers.com slash booking to book your perfect stay. Using these affiliate links to book your experiences and travel helps support our podcast and allows us to continue to provide new content on a weekly basis. Please consider using these links when booking your next travel. There's no extra cost to you and we are compensated through the affiliate. We hope

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enjoyed this episode and we'll find some inspiration to help you with your travel journeys. Please consider going on your favorite podcast platform and leave us a review. The more five-star reviews we have, the more likely we are to be featured and discovered by others. Make sure to follow or subscribe our podcast to be notified of new episodes as they are released. You can also find us on Instagram as Sunshine Travelers Podcast. Remember, that is Travelers with one L. Most importantly, share it with your friends to help them catch the travel bug. You never know, they may become your greatest travel companion.

Episode 41 - Arizona and the Grand Canyon

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