no more bedhead

Today we spent the day wandering around Flagstaff. Mostly the “historic” downtown area. It is a several square block area with a whole bunch of little shops and restaurants. It was a lot of fun.

We found a store called Sacred Rites, and when we walked in the kids said, “It smells like our house!” The store sells singing bowls, drums, other musical instruments, buddhist statuary, wall hangings, jewelry, prayer flags, and incense (hence the reason it smelled like our house). We spent a long time in there, with the clerk and I playing all the different singing bowls. They carried some I had never seen before. They were either glass or crystal, and we played them with a rubber mallet. They were U shaped and the “walls” were at least as tall as the diameter of the bowls. If I were to guess I would say that they were probably 12”, 18”, and 24” in diameter. They had the most amazing sounds (and price tags!). The guy said that a number of new age healers use them for their healings, and each is tuned to a different chakra. All I know is that we had quite the chorus going. (Note: I found them on the Google at another online store - these be them.)

After purchasing some prayer flags and incense (trying a new brand of nag champa – very strong), we continued our wandering. Some great funky shops there. Ultimately we ended up back at the hotel where we ate lunch then headed out to Sedona.

Beenie wanted to go to Sedona to see the red rocks, and get a Sedona pin. I think he's been reading Arizona Highways and has seen the issues on Sedona, so was keen to get there. We took Route 89A into town, found a parking place amazingly fast, then wandered around the shops there for a good chunk of the afternoon. A friend of mine describes Sedona as “a bit full of itself”, to which I am inclined to agree. I would much rather go hiking, like Ellen and I did 15 years ago. I don't think it would have worked this time, with the kids, in the July heat, so we didn't. But everyone seemed to have a good time, and enjoyed looking at the views and the scenery on 89A both on the way in and out.

By the time we got back to Flagstaff it was getting into the realm of dinner/bedtime, so unfortunately we didn't get to one of the places I really wanted to go – Lowell Observatory. The guy at Sacred Rites said that the Flagstaff Symphony was having a chamber concert on the observatory grounds, and it would have been totally cool to see that in addition to all the doings at the observatory itself. Oh well, maybe next time.