As a result of COVID and the quarantine, we have not really traveled at all this year. I did a trip to NYC and to Disneyland at the beginning of the year, but nothing since then. Dave had not taken any days off work, so we decided just to get away for a couple of nights to Flagstaff and enjoy some 80-degree temps. We left on Thursday morning and came back this morning (Saturday).
I found a cute little bed and breakfast online called The England House. It was a quaint little place and the owners were very nice and friendly. We stayed in a room called The Pantry, and it was exactly as its name implies, the original pantry of the house. When I booked the room a week ago it was the only one available, but if we stay here again I would choose a different room. The Pantry was just super small and really only had enough room for the bed and a little space to walk around the bed.
It was near downtown so we walked to dinner both nights.
This was our breakfast table both mornings. It was in an enclosed patio, but the doors were open so it almost felt like you were outside.
When we arrived on Thursday we were walking around downtown and found Lux - we were surprised to see a location in Flagstaff.
Thursday night we ate dinner at Bandera Tacos. The food was excellent but we ordered way too much - prices were very reasonable. Most of downtown Flagstaff was closed due to Coronavirus.
On Friday morning we drove up to Arizona Nordic Village to do some hiking. I had read some reviews online that the cross country trails were good hiking trails in the summer. We hiked Babbitt Trail and it ended up being 4.6 miles. Not much elevation gain but it was nice to be in the trees and hike in high 70s/low 80s temps.
There were so many beautiful wildflowers.
At the end of the hike we saw these cows - they all had horns so they were bulls. When I first stopped to take a picture one started running and I thought he was charging at me, but he ran the opposite direction. I told Dave if the bull started charging us he needed to be my rodeo clown :)
After our hike we decided to drive to the Meteor Crater. A huge iron-nickel meteorite, estimated to have been about 150 feet across and weighing several thousand tons, struck the northern Arizona rocky plain with an explosive force greater than 20 million tons of TNT. The massive meteor is estimated to have been traveling at about 26,000 mph, or 7.2 miles per second, through the Earth's atmosphere. At that speed, the meteor could have passed over New York City 8 minutes after being sighted in Paris, and then impacted in Arizona about 5 minutes later! This picture below is the largest fragment that has been found of that meteorite.
In seconds, the result of the impact was the excavation of a giant bowl-shaped cavity (550 feet deep and 4,000 feet across).
The Crater is large enough for 20 football games to be played simultaneously on its floor, while more than 2 million people watch from the sloping sides. Fun fact: I am an AZ native and did not know about this crater until yesterday. Guess I should brush up on some Arizona history.
NASA has provided extensive science training at Meteor Crater for the Apollo astronauts.
Once we got back into Flagstaff we stopped at Local Juicery for a smoothie. We have been to the Sedona location numerous times, but I had read an article earlier this year that a Flagstaff location had opened.
Dinner Friday night was at Brix. This is the current look for going to a restaurant in Arizona.
A great getaway but I will be happy when life gets back to normal.
