THE TRIP TO CELEBRATE #5 - Our day of reliving precious memories and making new ones

As you know from yesterday's post the first thing we did on our 50th was to locate the church where we had been married and take a similar picture in front on the doors. Here are a couple more.

(click on all pictures to enlarge)


Next we found the Old Court House where we got out marriage license. They had built a new addition onto it but we weren't the least interested in it!

Then we went into the Hotel Monte Vista
To the coffee shop on the corner where we ordered 2 Hot Chocolates. When Sonja found out we were celebrating out 50th Anniversary she offered to "buy" us a treat....either Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Icing or Mint Cheese Cake topped with Chocolate & fresh Mint.
We chose a piece of cheese cake to share and sat at this window as we enjoyed our yummy Hot Chocolate & Cheese Cake. Sonja was so impressed that we had been married 50 years and right here in Flagstaff that she told EVERYONE who came into the coffee shop!

Another picture of my beloved clinging to this street clock and saying, "No, no I don't want to get married".

At 10 a.m. we started the 80 mile drive to The Grand Canyon. About 20 minutes into our travel it began sprinkling and rained lightly the entire journey. We could not see any of the canyon at the lookout sites due to the heavy clouds and mist, but we still enjoyed the ride among the tall pines and up the mountain.

At noon we had arrived at the famous El Tovar hotel where we had spend out wedding night. This time they were all sold out and "there was no room in the inn".

We put our name on the waiting list for the dining hall and spent our time enjoying this old 100 room hotel which opened January 14, 1905. It was named El Tovar in honor of the Spanish explorer Pedro de Tobar who had led the first expedition to Hopi Indian country in 1540. This hotel was built by Fred Harvey who also built the famous La Fonda in my home town of Santa Fe, NM in 1876.

We asked our sweet waitress to take a picture of us eating our lovely lunch in the El Tovar. The building is built of native boulders and these darkly stained Oregon Pine throughout the entire interior.

As Mickey prayed over our lunch he added "And please God, lift the clouds from the canyon so we can see the beauty of your handiwork."

As we walked out of the El Tovar and toward the rim of the canyon to the look-out these are the scene's and views that God blessed our eyes with!!!!!

God indeed answered Mickey's prayer above & beyond what we had hoped for.
Such beauty. If any of you have never seen The Grand Canyon it is absolutely one of the things to put on your "Must see & do" list. Pictures never can capture the beauty and grandeur of this place. This is my 4th time to be dazzled by the beauty.

This little cabin has nothing to do with memories of our marriage anniversary but we took a picture of it because it holds fond memories of a trip we made to Grand Canyon in October, 1966 with our daughters, Suzette, age 12, & Jacque, age 11. My forever friend, Joan, was keeping 2 year old David for us. We stayed in one of these little cabins and roasted hot dogs & marshmallows on the open fireplace. The next morning we awoke to about 4" of snow. Happy family memories.

By the way, it snowed on this mountain this night, too!!!

Our plans were to spend Saturday night at The Grand Canyon at the El Tovar Inn. Then we were going on to Sedona for Sunday & Monday. We have been in Arizona numerous times but had never been to Sedona. We'd heard, over and over, how very beautiful it was so decided to add it in to this trip. We are totally flexible people and so we decided to just drive the 70 miles on down to Sedona for the night.

These are post cards I bought (because our camera charge was done for the day) of the stupendous beauty we beheld driving down the long winding road into Sedona. When we got there it was jammed pack. There was some motorcycle rally going on and the only room we could find was $275 + tax a night!!!! What???? We might consider paying $275 for a week!!! You know we are Frugal people. So the alternate plan was to drive back the 35 miles to Flagstaff and spend the night and return to Sedona the next morning to enjoy it.

Little did we know how much our "plans" were about to change. We got back to Flagstaff at 5:30 and I could tell Mickey was really worn out and tired. We got the very last room at the motel there in Flagstaff. We were just watching TV and about 7:30 Mickey said, "I'm going to go on to bed. I don't feel very well." He got sicker and sicker and I kept wanting to call 911. Finally he agreed I should take him to the emergency room at the hospital which he had noticed where it was that day as we were touring around Flagstaff.

At 9 p.m I checked Mickey into the Flagstaff Medical Center.

Even with this change of events we could see the hand of God. Had we found a room at either Grand Canyon or Sedona he would have had to be flown by ambulance plane to Flagstaff. We are so thankful we were in Flagstaff.