Hello! Sorry for the crickets around here – we’ve been having a few busy days around here and I’ve been falling asleep before I can even get a sentence written. Well, aside from last night when I wrote this whole post out and then lost it – damn internet. Anyways, tonight I wanted to share part one of Scott and I’s early anniversary adventure. Back in December, we took a spontaneous trip through three states, a dozen towns, through the mountains, down to the ocean and back again. The funny thing is, we didn’t even decide to take the trip until the evening before, but after a few words of encouragement from my folks and securing a (fancy) rental car, we packed our bags and made plans to head north in the morning.
After kissing the kitties goodbye and grabbing a few coffees to-go, Scott and I we’re on the road. For our first day, we decided to drive the scenic route up through Sedona – just incase any fall leaves were still holding on – then up to Flagstaff for lunch, and over to Williams to go to Bearizona and rest our heads for the night.
We made our first stop in Flagstaff at Macy’s Coffee Shop for some hot drinks and a warm lunch. It was 20 degrees when we first stepped out of the car, so a hot meal was a must for these desert rats. Macy’s is famous for their grilled cheese and soup, so we placed our usual order and snagged the best seat in the house.
After filling our bellies with delicious food and hot drinks, we made the chilly walk back to the car so we could head on to our next adventure – Bearizona.
About 30 miles outside of Flagstaff is Bearizona, a wildlife park whose mission is to promote conservation through memorable and educational encounters with North American wildlife in a natural environment. The drive-thru park takes about 30 minutes and along the way you’ll see black bears, wolves, bisons, sheep and more.
While you stay completely safe in your car (windows up, doors locked), it is a bit scary (and awesome) to have the animals so close to you. We were there right at feeding time, so most of the animals were out close to the drive-thru path. The wolves, however, were right in the road and surrounding the cars as they drove by. If this happens, they tell you to keep driving (slowly) as the wolves might get aggressive and start attacking your car – yikes!
Once you come to the end of the trail there’s a camp site with a snack shack, souvenir shop and a few more animals to admire – bobcats, foxes, shetland ponies and more. After spending a few minutes walking around and enjoying the recent snowfall, Scott and I hopped back in the car and made our way to Williams, a historic town along the famous Route 66.
After checking in at our hotel and taking a drive around the town, we stopped in at the Pine Country Restaurant for dinner and pie. The restaurant was packed, so we wandered around the gift shop until our table was ready. There were tons of people in town for the last weekend of the Polar Express train ride, so we got to see lots of families in their pajamas together, scarfing down their meals before the next train arrived.
We both go turkey melts for dinner, and then shared a giant piece of cherry chocolate pie for dessert – which we definitely couldn’t finish. After paying our bill, we headed back to the room to rest up for our next adventurous day.
We woke up to a light dusting of snow and two degree weather outside. Before heading out, we stopped by the hotel breakfast and filled up on not-so-great coffee and waffles. After we got out to our car we were surprised to find that the coffees we had left had froze overnight, as well as the bananas I had left in the trunk (rookie mistake). We both got such a big kick out of this, and may have taken a few photos of us “drinking” the frozen coffee — haha. Afterward, we pitched the coffee and hit the road toward our next stop, Sin City!
And that’s where I’ll leave ya’ll for now, but I’ll be back soon with our vegas adventures!
Have a wonderful day tomorrow, sweet friends!
-Chelsea xo