Sedona Red Rocks

Wow, what a gorgeous place. I can easily imagine how someone who lives in Sedona would never want to live elsewhere. I mean, why would you ever move if you woke up to views like this from your window every morning?

My personal favorite, Snoopy Rock:

Anyhow, we had a promotional offer to spend two nights at Amara Resort and Spa for $169 + tax in exchange for sitting through a 90-minute timeshare presentation at the Hyatt nearby. They also offered us a $200 gift certificate to be used at any of a number of restaurants or spas in the area, so how could we pass it up? I decided it would be a perfect way to spend the weekend of Che's birthday, and it was.

The weather was cold (for Arizona!) but sunny and beautiful. Overnight temps were in the teens but the days warmed up to the 50s, which was perfect for strolling through the shops and galleries in uptown Sedona. The hotel was very nice, although there were some significant snafus that put a bit of a damper on the weekend, the biggest being that the hotel restaurant closed on Friday and did not reopen for our Saturday night dinner reservation, something we didn't learn until late in the day Saturday, or for our planned lazy Sunday morning room service breakfast. After speaking to the manager, though, the hotel did generously offer for us to return for another stay with dinner for two in their restaurant, their compliments. Nice! Looks like we will be headed back for my birthday weekend in February.

The timeshare presentation was fine. Our sales guy was a retired pilot now living in Sedona and working for Hyatt to "keep busy." Totally no pressure, and he was actually a lot of fun to talk to. His wife is a travel writer specializing in the Caribbean, so we shared lots of stories of travels in the Caribbean, and he gave us some great suggestions for future trips. And no, we did not buy (another) timeshare. Anyhow, I digress.

Saturday night, we went to Red Rock Fantasy at Los Abrigados, which is a festival of dozens of displays of holiday lights set up throughout the resort by local families. Visitors vote on their favorites - mine, of course, was the Snoopy/Woodstock display. Afterwards, we ate dinner at Joey Bistro at Los Abrigados, a pretty mediocre meal which left me even more bitter that the restaurant at Amara was closed.

Sunday was a lazy day at the spa at Sedona Rouge, which culminated in an hour-long couples massage for Che & I, compliments of our "free" gift certificate. He had a deep tissue massage while I enjoyed an oh-so-relaxing reflexology/foot massage. Afterwards, he admitted he has never understood why I love going to the spa with my girlfriends and spending an arm and a leg for a day of relaxation. Now he knows better. We're looking forward to doing the same when we go back in February.