Sedona & Slide Rock

There is a beautiful place called Sedona that is a hop, skip and jump away from Flagstaff. You drive down a long, curvy road sandwiched between red mountains and as Mark and I were driving along in Big Red my mind kept flashing back to other times I had driven down that road. There was the time my Aunt Mona and I went and we were stuck in traffic for close to an hour because someone had chosen to jump off of Grasshopper point (not a good idea people) and a helicopter had to come and get the body out. Another time, my best friend Nicky and I had come to visit and we stalked a cute hiker up a huge hill only to be left behind and winded. There were many more memories flashing through my head but one of my favorites was when Mark and I were here 7 years ago. We had decided on a whim to go to Slide Rock which most of my family refuses to go to since it is such a tourist trap - but hey, I had Mark with me so I had an excuse. Look at how good my belly button looks in this picture. It is so small and tiny you can hardly see it. Sigh - those were the days. Mark and I are modeling Wal-Mart's finest swimsuit apparel and since they were out of bikini bottoms, I am wearing a pair of boys swim trunks with the mesh inside and all. (I still have them too - I don't really know why.)


Now, I want to tell you a big difference between Mark and I. While we are both adventurous, Mark is really the only one who is good at it. I am always willing to swallow my pride and dig deep for my courage and give things my best shot, but I almost always end up looking like an idiot. Case in point. When in Slide Rock, you do as the natives do and you slide down the rocks. Mark went first. With a great big push, he was off and ... running? Sliding? I don't know.

Whatever it was, he made it look easy. I think he must have been flexing his abs or something in order to stay that rigid and upright.

Next up was me. Now I'm thinking, Ok Miriah, anything Mark can do you can do better. Right? Riiiiight. I remember giving Mark a confident wave while pushing back the warning my brain was trying to send me. With a big push, I was off. I think my ab muscles failed me - they often do. In my mind I was looking like Mark did, but as this picture clearly shows, in reality, I was almost drowning.

Luckily, I surfaced and then decided sunbathing was the order of the day.

This year, with the boys, we decided to skip Slide Rock and head straight down into Sedona. We stopped at an overlook to peer at the canyon and spot cactuses.

Once we were in Sedona, I did take a lot of pictures but none of them turned out how I wanted them to and I figured that was OK. This way, you will have to go and see it for yourself. And you'll have to do the tourist thing and try out Slide Rock - make sure you do your sit-ups!