Leaving the Grand Canyon, heading to Sedona

Our checkout time was 11:00 AM, and we used every minute of the morning.

Here is a photo of the front porch of the lodge. It is really nice (in spite of the angry patrons who don't read their emails.) 

Our last walk was very windy (you can tell by the chinstraps) but beautiful.

Nature is a majesty.

The original designs of the dinnerware is still being used.

We liked these quite a bit.

They were selling some of these pieces in the gift shop. We picked up a couple of incidental pieces for our breakfast plates.

The main dining room at the lodge. I am pretty sure sister Abbie Nordholm and Gus ate there a year or so ago when they travelled this way.

On our way from the GC to Sedona via Flagstaff, and as per our usual pattern, we avoided the freeways. So a rushed 2 hr 33 min trip took closer to five hours. Maybe six. We had lunch in Flagstaff (hipster central!) at the Tourist Home All Day Cafe, which you should not miss if you find yourself there, and then headed to the Wupatki and Sunset Crater National Monuments. 

Here is the ash peak:

Here is the ash:

here is the lava flow:

We then stopped at the Walnut Canyon National Monument, with some tremendous cliff dwellings that we did not get to see, since we took our sweet ever lovin' time getting there. (They close at 3:30)

We ended up in Sedona, after a harrowing drive through the Oak Creek Canyon to our AirBNB to relax and try (and fail) to order a pizza delivered. We had to to pick-up instead. Thanks, Obama!