We woke up to a cloudy morning but the high level clouds soon burned off and it was a glorious sunny day...cooler but a beautiful blue ski. The Views Inn in Oak Creek is an older 1960 type motel with updated rooms but pretty basic and the breakfast was quite unremarkable...cold boiled eggs, white bagels or sandwich brown bread, sweet yogurt, oatmeal, tiny cinnamon buns, and the tiniest apples I have ever seen. The coffee was OK barely. We set off to check out the red mts....first Beel Rock where we stopped and checked out the trail head into the canyon. I bought 2 turquoise bracelets from a Navaho couple at the site ...2 for 10:00 .....stocking stuffers for Claire and Kara. The wife was expecting her second baby in December and looked ready to deliver ant minute. Beside Bell Rock was Courthouse rock...massive striations of red Sandstone and a few limestone lines...both leftovers from old seas that covered and receded over the valley millenniums ago. Then we drove up to the Chapel of the Holy Cross which is a cement chapel built by private $ and completed in 1956 and given to the Catholic Archdiocese. It's nestled on a small red sandstone hill in front of a massive mountain called Snoopy Rock. It's quite pretty and inside quite spiritual. The green brush that grows haphazardly across the rock faces give the landscape a beautiful sage Contrasarpe to the red rock.
We then drove to Tlaquepaque Village which is a Spanish- hacienda type shopping development of galleries, restaurants clothes boutiques and knick knack shops .....Sandro and Beatrice wanted to check out an artist that a friend knew called Ken Rowe who does bronze Sculptures of animals eg bears, elk, Eagles etc. he wasn't at the gallery but we explored the area and eventually had coffee and carrot cake at the Sweet Water Cafe.
Later we went through town which is very touristy with kitschy shops but the area is stunning.
We drove up to a valley across from Cathedral rock fit dusk and Sandro took many Photos with his big camera.
Then back to the Views for wine and peanuts and then to Pagos for reasonable Italian? Food. We shared Mushroom Raviola which was much better than last night. Now we are watching Poirot.