Monday, September 8, 2014

Hiking and Quilts or Is That Quilts and Hiking?

 One of the nice things about living in the Phoenix Metro
is that we are only a 3 hour drive from
the South Rim of the Grand Canyon
We took a few days vacation with our friends 
the Hollands to combine
some hiking with visits to a few quilt stores
along the way.
 Paul and Mr. Cactus
were quite the adventurers as they trekked 
down to 
3 Mile Rest House on 
Bright Angel Trail
With endless switchbacks, the Grand Canyon
is known as "a place of extremes"
While descending the 2400 feet,
going down can be hard on the knees,
but the coming back up can be exhaustive.
Mr. Cactus was quite surprised he had service
when his phone rang
deep down in the canyon.
It was our 90 year old Aunt
calling to say she was home from the hospital :)
At least it was good news!
 While the guys hiked
Denise and I hung out at the top of the rim
visiting places like Lookout Studio
and the Lodge
 Always the quilter looking for inspiration
I noticed this Hexagon pattern
on the tile floor in the ladies restroom :)
(go ahead and laugh)
 The day before on our ride towards the Canyon
we stopped at a few quilt stores 
like Quilter's Store in Sedona
Very nice with a great selection of batiks
Southwest patterns and fabrics
and even some Modern
and Quilts on Route 66
in the small town of Williams
 Quaint with a Vintage feel
and current fabrics.
We were glad we stopped.
And to not overload the guys with too much
quilty stuff in one day
we spent the evening in Flagstaff
at the Lowell Observatory
where Pluto was discovered in 1930
on this telescope.
We've been to the Lowell several times
but this was our first visit at night.
They opened up their telescopes
for some terrific views of the Moon
I was even more thrilled to be able to see
up close
 the rings
around Saturn and 3 of it's moons.

3 comments:

Karen - Quilts...etc. said...

I have been in the Route 66 quilt shop last time we were in that area about 3 years ago! how funny your husbands phone ringing all the way down there. I too saw those hexies in the ladies room :) I see quilts every where too!

em's scrapbag said...

Looks like a fun trip.

Sara said...

Looks like it was a wonderful trip. The Grand Canyon has been on my bucket list for years but I never seem to get there.

My hubbie left on a work road trip to Wisconsin (from SD) this morning and I wish I could have gone along because there are some great quilt shops on his route. But I have to work unfortunately. But I may visit one little shop in Pierre before heading home at the end of the day.