18 Years

Kathy and I celebrated our 18th wedding anniversary last weekend by spending a couple of days in the Sedona-Cottonwood-Clarksdale area of Norther Arizona. The Plan was to spend two nights in Sedona and take the Verde Canyon Railroad trip through the Verde River Canyon.

In 18 years of marriage Kathy and I had never taken a trip without the kids. We did not even have a proper honeymoon, so we were really excited about the trip. We left kind of early Friday morning and took the long way to Sedona. We went through Prescott and had lunch in Jerome. I haven't been to Jerome since I was a kid and it is even weirder than I remember. After lunch we got caught in a huge downpour as we drove down the mountain to Clarksdale. The rain was nice.

We scouted out the train station and looked around town. Clarksdale is a sleepy little town but there are signs of new growth which kind of surprised me. Next it was on to Cottonwood, which is only two miles down the road from Clarksdale. It is another sleepy little town but it feels real. Finally we made it to Sedona, which is not a sleepy little town and certainly does not feel real.


Saturday we were out early and off exploring again. We did not have to be to the railroad depot until about 1pm so we had time to kill. We explored the Tuzigoot National monument which was very interesting. We then headed over to Cottonwood and did some shopping in old town. We found a huge antiques shop, and I do mean huge. We checked out some of the local craft shops and dropped a little cash. Lunch was at the Tavern Grill in Cottonwood. This was amazing! The best food on the trip and a really cool place.

The train ride was, of course, the highlight of the day and the trip. We had first class tickets which included a complementary margarita and appetizers. There was not much in the way of crowds so we had plenty of room. The train is cool because, not only does it have air conditioned coaches, there are also open-air gondolas that you can go to. These really allow an amazing view of the scenery. The entire trip is about 4 hours but really doesn't seem like that long.


It was an excellent trip and I highly recomend the Verde Canyon railroad trip. It is time to wrap this post up! It has taken me nearly a week to write it, I getting so lame these days.