Julina's visit

Julina's visit last week was so fun.  On Tuesday, we drove up to Flagstaff in order to drive down the beautiful drive of Oak Creek Canyon on our way to a day in Sedona.

This is the view at the start of the drive down

Because it was a Tuesday, the tourists were light so we actually found a decent parking spot and walked a bit along the street with all the souvineer shops.

We had lunch at the Crescent Moon Picnic area and took the hike to the "vortex"

Remember the rock cairns from previous visits???

Well, they are all gone!!!  

Did the "vortex" sweep them away???

More Sedona photos...

Julina came into the office with us on Wednesday where she met up with Alex's sister, Terry, for lunch.  While she was there, Sister Collins came in and so we took a mother/daughter photo.

Kristen Collins, Jenene Poulson, me, Julina

Julina spent Thursday with Aunt Joan (my brother Jim's wife) and Steve and I went into the office that day.  Juli and Joan went down into old Scottsdale for lunch and some browsing.  That evening, Jim and Joan took us to dinner at the historic (100 years old this year) Rock Spring Cafe in Black Canyon City, just a short 15 minute drive north of Anthem. 

On Friday, we took time off from the office again to take Julina to Cave Creek.  We hiked the Jewel of the Creek trail.  You can see that it was cloudy and a teensy bit rainy but not enough to spoil the hike.

Of course, while in Cave Creek, Julina had to see the Rare Earth Gallery, have lunch at Big Earl's Greasy Eats and enjoy ice cream at the City Creamery.  That night, we cooked pork steaks on our little make-shift grill and later enjoyed a movie.  In fact, we watched a lot of movies while Julina was here:  we went to the theater on Monday to see the new Fantastic Beasts movie.  We also watched Lemon Drop Kid, What's Up Doc, and The Man Who Invented Christmas in the evenings.

It was just a terrific visit and a great week.  We were sad to put her on the plane Saturday morning.  Thanks, Julina for coming.  Thanks, Alex for giving her up for a week.