Sedona Arizona 2008 February

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Sedona is a mini, commercialized Grand Canyon, my favorite place in the whole world. I'd take the bottom of the Grand Canyon any day but Sedona is it's own special experience. The main drag has galleries, fancy stores and strip malls selling tourist junk, clothing, both good and bad art, native american jewelry, Navajo rugs, leather goods, kachinas. We stayed at the Enchantment Resort, out of town backed up into a gorgeous canyon of red rock mountains, pinnacles, chimneys, some days sprinkled with a light snow fall, all backed by a bright blue sky with whispy clouds overhead.

I was there for the first time, for four days, with 21 other members of "The Posse". "The Posse" is a group of women, all from Santa Cruz, used to be from Santa Cruz or are friends of women from Santa Cruz. It started as a small group 16 years ago and has gradually grown. For the last four years, a strong contingent from Detroit has joined the crowd. This year I was one of two newbies.

Despite alternating days of sunshine, rain and snow, it was a wonderful time. With my rotten knees and back I couldn't do any of the hiking that others did and that I yearned to do. So I spent much of the time in the glorious spa with in and outdoor pools, jacuzzis, all different kinds of massages, treatments, facials. I had a wonderful aromatherapy massage, my first. I walked out of there smelling like a pinetree. The resort also organizes a wide variety of activities, pilates, yoga, gourd decorating, nature walks, stargazing and has a nice gym.

We were spread out into various "casitas". Every night one casita would host a dinner for the others. We had a fabulous gumbo dinner with a New Orleans Mardi Gras theme, a southwestern chili soup dinner, and on Oscar night, we had our own Oscar party with a red carpet and all the "stars" entering the party being interviewed about their "gowns", if they were wearing underwear under their gowns, if they were pregnant, who they were dating, who they'd broken up with, while the rest of us pretended like we were the screaming fans. It was more fun than actually watching the Oscars.

We also had a birthday party for Mary Lou, one of the women who also went on the Egypt trip, with a fantastic catered meal, a DJ and karioki. It was absolutely a totally hilarious wonderful dancing singing night. Not just one person would do karioki, but 6 or 7 together with the whole audience joining in, and most of us dancing, too. The rather somber young waiting staff even loosened up and were laughing and clapping with us. Mary Lou had NO trouble being the center of attention with all of us dancing in a circle around her dancing in the middle. You have to understand, all of us were at least 50, quite a few my age, all with incredibly responsible positions except those of us who are retired, and most of us looking like plain Janes. You wouldn't expect it to be the best party that the young Enchantment Resort staff had seen since they'd been working there.

All I can say, is I hope to go back next year, and to make these women my friends over the years.

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Photos

Red Rocks
I really didn't catch the dramatic beauty of the mountains and the joy of the parties but at least these are in focus---kind of.