Category Archives: Arizona-New York trip
New York – Billy Joel!
We arrive at Newark at 6am and take a cab to our east side airbandb in midtown. Luckily the apartment is ready so we can move in and rest a bit while we wait for our friends Henry and Heidi. The view is amazing.
Our first activities is a guided tour of Greenwich with a focus on Italian food and history. As soon as the Tamos arrive, we are off on an Uber to the meeting point, hoping for lots of good food. We meet in a church, where our guide Mike explains the interwoven history of religion for new immigrants arriving to New York. We then begin our walk though the neighbour hood. Mike brings us to businesses owned by the same families for multiple generations and who have survived the pandemic. A fantastic coffee roasting place with an amazing selection of coffee as well as tea and spices! All served in bulk! Love it.
We also get amazing food freshly made for us as well as a short talk from the daughter who is taking over this 3rd generation pasta place. They are thriving and now have a manufacture outside of the island that makes fresh pasta supplying many restaurants and grocery. A success story!
Next we come to a plaza where we wait for Mike to get a typical New York style « pie » / pizza for the group. It is amazing! Simple tomato sauce and the most gooey mozzarella. To die for!
We visit many landmarks and try more food while Mike recount anecdotes and history. This tour was well worth it!
We decide to walk from Greenwich to Central Park and walk this beautiful park in the middle of the city. How smart to keep this piece of land intact for everyone’s enjoyment!
Back to our building, we go up to the 26th floor to Ophelia bar to enjoy Manhattan and an amazing view! The tables and chairs are right at the balustrade and it is almost scary to look down!
Next day is Ellis island and Statue of Liberty. The museum at Ellis island is incredible well done. We feel the excitement and fear of the new immigrants as they are screened and walk through the same rooms they would have walked reading and hearing about their experience. Here I took a photo of the display of some of the currency that were exchanged upon arrival. The logistic of this was incredible, from feeding them, clothing them, exchanging their money and when needed caring for them in the large hospital. Amazing! We run out of time to read about their impact on the history and politics of the city. We will have to come back.
A Statue representing the very first immigrant that arrived at Ellis island.
Next we go to the Statue of Liberty. The pedestal is the highest we can climb and it is an incredible view. The museum explaining the journey to build it is also very interesting. A great outing for sure!
On our guide Mike’s recommendation, we walk to a Spanish restaurant El Nacionale ( a very long walk) for sangria and tapas. Excellent!
That evening we decide to stay in and enjoy the balcony (Heidi is studying the life of the people in the building next door) and play some Euchre!
Next day, we go back downtown to visit the 9/11 memorial.
I love the two waterfall built with the exact footprint of the two towers that were destroyed. The memorial is extremely well made – taking visitors through the timeline if that day,
Innumerable mementos on displays and a sobering memorial to all the victims.
I really appreciate that they took the effort of explaining the immense contribution of the search and rescue dogs, displaying photos of their work and of them in retirement. I love it! What beautiful animals.
We end the night at our Billy Joel concert and he doesn’t disappoint! We can’t believe it is sold out and many in the crowd are young ones who can sing all the words! He is funny, relatable and in top shape. His voice is great and his band incredible! We love if they insert snippets of other songs seamlessly within a few songs and appreciate his two band members who do a solo. He comes back for 5 encore with big hits and tells us he is now exhausted and has to go 🤣. So worth it!
Sedona + Scottsdale
Early in the morning, we leave the tent campground in Utah to start the drive to Sedona. We loose an hour within 15 minutes drive as Utah does not follow daylight savings time.
We stop at the Dam near Page. It is very large and it makes you wonder how much this Colorado river can give to all these towns with the water so low!
As we approach Sedona, a completely new landscape presents itself to us. Beautiful forest with large conifers, valleys and large mountains and hiking trails after hiking trails. I had no idea!
In Scottsdale, we stay at Amara resort and spa. Beautiful view of large boulders / rock mountains and very friendly staff. We each have a facial scheduled for that day and it is amazing! After a stroll along the Main Street where stores after stores are lined up, we have an excellent dinner for Mother’s Day at the resort.
The following day is our anniversary – 30 years….how time flies when you are in good company! We have massages scheduled in the morning which are also excellent! This is a great place for treatments.
We leave shortly after the massage, on our way to Scottsdale. We are staying at Boulders Resort in a beautiful large casita. We make our way to the driving range to hit a few balls in preparation for my first golf round of the year. We have a lovely dinner at Paulo Verde at the resort with an excellent Barolo. Again the weather is perfect and we enjoy a beautiful evening on the patio. Onwards for 30 more years!
We have a great round of golf the following morning, followed by a dip at one of the pool and some relaxing time reading our book. We decide to drive outside of the resort to discover a small bistro serving American cuisine with a French flair. Again the food is excellent!
The next day, we have a flight in the evening so we enjoy the pool and go for a brisk walk in the morning. We check out and drive to old downtown in Scottsdale and walk around to see the town. We decide to stop at a nail salon to each have a pedicure. It is chuck’s first one and he now wants to schedule a monthly pedicure!
The flight is quick but the seats uncomfortable and very little service. This was not worth paying for business class. Note to self – American Airlines domestic business class is a no-no.
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Grand Canyon – Phoenix + Utah
Finally we arrive in Phoenix for one of our 30th anniversary trip.
After an uneventful trip and 3 hours drive to check in to our hotel in Tusayan. We are staying at the Holliday Inn in town as most of the places were sold out even though we were booking months in advance. Turned out to be pleasantly surprised with incredibly friendly staff, very large suite with a separate living room which works great for us as I am an early riser, and great breakfast! We decide to drive the 15 minutes to the Grand Canyon village and Mather’s point. What an amazing scenery that opens up to us! Truly spectacular and we know there are no pictures that will give it justice!
We make our plans for our hikes the next days and go back for a Mexican dinner in a very cute restaurant called Plaza Bonita. Portions are extravagant but my first organic margarita with agave syrup is excellent!
On day 2, we make our way very early to the South Kaibab trailhead full of energy. Very quickly as we descend though, we realize that the trail is narrow and the height will make this a nightmare for Chuck.
We go back up and decide to hike a bit more of the rim trail on our way to Bright Angel Trail. Without realizing, we are piling up the steps and the kilometres! Amazing how everything is well maintained….no garbage on the ground and anything in back condition. The paved Rim trail is incredibly scenic.
After restocking in water, we make our way to Bright Angel trail head and start the descent. We are warned that it takes an hour to get to the 1.5 mile resthouse and 2 hours to go back and that it is steep all the way but it gets very steep at certain points. We resolve to take our time and make it there.
The view and scenery is absolutely fantastic. Hard to capture in photos or describe with words. This is one that must be witnessed in person!
We make it at our destination in one hour and feel good but are worried about the hike back so we decide not to continue to mike 3.
Although very tough on and off, we realize that our pace going up is the same – we make it in one hour as well. We could have continued on…. A project for another time. Once back at the top, we go to the geology museum and take stock of the amount of dust on our legs and shoes. Incredible!
We catch the Grand Canyon IMAX movie in town and back at our hotel after dinner early.
Ready for tomorrow’s move to our « glamping » in Utah.
The road to Utah is awesome and we take our time stopping multiple times.
First we stop at a scenic overlook called Liban Point, just west of Navajo Point. What a view! This is our favorite view of the Grand Canyon – we can see a large section of the Colorado river as well as the famous rapids that drop 3 buildings! Luckily, there is a gate for Chuck 🤣 Pictures again do not do it justice but here we go.
Then we stop at the desert watchtower – again the canyon is beautiful from different spot.
As we are driving along 89, we see a variety of cliffs ranging in color from yellow to deep orange. We feel that we are on a different planet! We make a stop at Marble Canyon – vermillion cliffs. This is different as we can see the cliffs from below and the play of light shows different Shades of colour. We can see why this is considered one of the most beautiful highway in the world!
The Under the Canvas luxury tent campground is exactly as we would have expected! The interior of the tent is spacious and well appointed and our view to the Grand Staircase from our porch is fabulous. The dining hall with its outdoor patio is also lovely. We go for a short hike on the property to their small slot canyon and enjoy a very informative talk from geologist Gary in the evening. He shares so much information about the “making” of the Grand Canyon but also shares about the water crisis they are currently experiencing. From an average of 6 inches of water a year, they were down to under 1 inch last year. Their local lake Powell created by the dam is down to 27% of its historique high, threatening their very water supply and the whole Colorado river water level. Astonishing that not much is being done to address this overconsumption of water.
Today is the day for the antelope canyon – the very reason we drove up here.
We rise early and have a lovely breakfast on the patio chatting with two ladies from Bahamas. We learn about their handling of Covid and the crazy patriarchal society that does not give ownership to children of a Bahamian woman born in Bahama unless the father is Bahamian – crazy! She shares the best islands to visit and we take extensive notes!
Next we drive to the Navajo tour check in and go on a jeep with our guide Abraham to the entrance of the canyon.
This is beyond beautiful – words can not describe it. The play of light on these orange/pink walls, the carving made over millions of years by the water brought through to this day by flash flooding in the summer – amazing! This is all embellished by the great narration of our guide, sharing history, legends and the best photos spots. He takes the best photos for us and simply makes this tour amazing!
We then go to Horseshoe bend trail and hanging garden trail. Two nearby short trails with a great view of a rock formation peaking from the Colorado river at the first one and some maidenhair fern popping from the walls of a cliffs at a most unexpected spots at the second. Again we walk on the trail to take us there surrounded by a landscape reminiscing of the moon! Desert and cliffs as far as the eye can see. We are also reminded of a trail we did in Newfoundland.
Off for lunch to a super cute roadhouse called Grand Canyon brewery in Page. An absolute must! The decor and atmosphere are really neat and I can not resist sending mathew pictures of some of the menu items. Cheese curds (our favorite) are fried and breaded 😳….and some variation of Mac and cheese.
We spend the rest of the day at the campground surrounded by the very loud noise of a wind storm – relaxing while reading our books and listening to lovely live music! Off to Sedona tomorrow.
Martine's food and places 