If you have read the beginning of this blog and this long story, you would remember that a large part of this trip was planning on having friends join us. My manager (at the restaurant I performed for) and his wife , had planned on flying out to Phoenix, Arizona to come along for the Utah section of the trip. We also had friends two days later coming into Las Vegas to join the trip as well.
Today is the day that we needed to pick the first two up in Phoenix,AZ, thus we were on a very tight schedule. Our goal was to get to Phoenix before their flight landed, which was around 3pm. However we still had to get breakfast in Flagstaff and see the Meteor Crater west of where we were sleeping. We hit the ground running this morning at 8am, after making coffee and packing up. We headed to the Meteor Crater which was an hour and 10 minutes away. The Meteor Crater is a giant hole almost a mile across, formed by an asteroid that hit many millions of years ago. It’s a very famous photo to see and the entire structure was formed by a meteor that hit that was no wider than a football! It’s quite incredible to see in reality.
This was definitely an overpriced tour as it cost $36 total for two people to go see it and take a picture. Definitely was not my favorite thing to spend the money on, However for once in your life I suppose it’s worth the cost, especially since the asteroid that created this was evidently the size of a football. Now, Remember the guiding factor for a trip and that is it we can always take our memories with us but not our possessions.
On our way over to Flagstaff we had a game time decision detour to check out a place called Walnut Canyon National Monument, and though we didn’t explore to much, I wanted to at least see what the National Monument was all about. It was not as interesting as I expected, however it was known for Indian reservations, and dwellings, which would have taken too much time to explore. It would have taken a half day to thoroughly explore.
After taking pictures and enjoying the scenery for a minute we rushed over to Flagstaff for a midday brunch at MartaAnnes Breakfast café. This was a great surprise, and well worth the effort and money to eat here if you’re ever in the area. It is a Mexican themed brunch palace, and the food was awesome! I had great French toast and Ashley had an egg burrito for breakfast. This proved be one of the best breakfasts we had the entire trip in reality and it was one of those unique places that we randomly seem to find. I highly recommend it to anyone going through Flagstaff.
After we were done our plan was to drive a scenic byway through the Tonto National Forest and cut back into Phoenix. However, I made a mistake and left my wallet on the table, as we drove 30 minutes away. We had to turn back around very quick to recover it. This caused me to get very frustrated and angry, but upon walking into the restaurant, I found the wallet in the same bench and spot as when we had left! Thank goodness as the trip itself was saved!
PROTIP– Some advice I may ad for this road trip is, to not keep all your cash and cards, and valuables in one area. I kept a minimal amount of cash in my wallet and the bulk of it in a separate area in the car that people wouldn’t expect to find, as well as another credit card in there too. At the worst I would’ve lost $300. Nonetheless we found the wallet and headed down the interstate to Phoenix from Flagstaff. The worst part was
We were within 30 minutes of their flight early and it ended up working out absolutely beautiful, picking them up just in time as they landed. We headed to the Hyatt and got some free rooms courtesy of our new arrivals as they were Hyatt employees! We enjoyed some cocktails upstairs and relaxed at dinner after everyone had a long day traveling. We ate at the top of the Hyatt hotel, and received a nice discount as well of 50%! After catching up on our adventures and relaxing we decided to head into the city for a bit.
Our friends, Marlon and Dainora (his wife), decided to take us to a point in the city that was the highest overlook and we did a short hike to the top to enjoy the sunset in the desert. The place we hiked to the top of his called Lookout Mountain. This was near a great restaurant called Pointe Tapatio. Once it was dark headed out for a last-minute drink to a speakeasy bars.
PROTIP– Speakeasies are one of our favorite ways to explore a new city as so many sophisticated locals tend to hang out there and they usually feature bars that are intricate, private and have great drinks. I highly recommend this strategy to explore new places, and meet new locals.
The place we stopped for a drink was called the Valley Bar. It was one of the speakeasies in the bar, as you can see in the picture to your right. We had some great beer and mixed drinks and when we decided to leave we had to leave through a back alley in the establishment. This bar actually had a pool table and a game room as well as the lounge area which made it very unique for a speakeasy. When we were leaving however, we stumbled through a back room concert and it looked like they had a cult performing music, which was very disturbing as everyone was dressed in black garb! Nonetheless quite an interesting story to tell. If only I had a picture of it it would’ve been better.
The next morning we decided that we needed an early start, so we ended the night by packing for the hike the next day. I told them before they left they were in for a big hike every day so they had to be ready mentally and physically. This was going to an intense day starting tomorrow!
June 14 Expenses
3.15 coffee
36 Meteor Crater
27.41 breakfast Martannes Flagstaff
54 Dinner with Marlon hyatt
20.03 gas
3.33 Gatorade
15 beer
14 beer at valley bar
Total – 169.32
UTD – 1846.94
Gas total – 361.64
MILES DRIVEN – 304