Saturday, January 10, 2009

Naughty Nadia, Flat Irons and other Adventures in Arizona.

Tammy and I left for Phoenix yesterday. Our flight was delayed because they couldn't get the battery to start on the plane, and when they finally did, the ground crew assured us that "although it sounds scary, if you want, you can board." Once on board, we were told that the plane wasn't "butt heavy" enough and we were asked whether some people would volunteer to move to the back. Tammy and I, thrilled to discover that our "big butts" were finally good for something, happily volunteered. We were relieved that they didn't announce a few minutes later that we were now TOO butt heavy. But, alas, we arrived safely in phoenix.

Today was a fabulous day. While (truly) disappointed to miss the big snowstorm, we were pleased to wake up (at 5:00 AM GMT) to the promise of a blue sky and temperate weather. We (Tammy, our roomie - Mary Beth, and I) stopped for breakfast at the Village Inn before heading North. Our hostess was a riot. She announced that we three single girls were perfect for the four single guys across the room. (You do the math. And YES Wayne, Phillip and Glenn, we promptly informed her that we were NOT single.) A few moments later 2 little old ladies came in and were seated at the table adjacent to the guys. The hostess whispered to us that she put the ladies by the guys "because THOSE ladies were harmless." At that point, Tammy and I simultaneously glanced at her name tag, and simultaneously burst out laughing when we read "Naughty Nadia."

We were somewhat embarrassed to be glancing and laughing at the direction of this woman's (very large) chest, but Nadia promptly informed us that she's quite proud of her "B52s." I'll spare you all the details, but we heard a lot about Nadia's life. She's originally from Egypt and we exchanged a few words in Hebrew and Arabic and hopes for peace, and we all parted with hugs, kisses and terms of endearment (hers for me was "honey bunch.")


After multiple pit stops:
(How much peeing can three not-so-young women do? You really don't want to know.) We arrived in Jerome. Jerome is a tiny mining town up on a mountain. It's full of great art galleries and shops. We ate at a little (really little) cafe called "The Flat Iron" with an eclectic group of hippies, bikers and artists. Tammy dropped her lens cap in The Nellie Bly (a shop that sells beautiful kaleidoscopes) and we were chased down by the owner and several others. The owner ran back to her shop and gave us a lens filter someone had left behind the previous week. We absolutely loved this town.
We continued to Sedona. We went to a few different locations to take photos. (I'll post those when I get home. For now, check out some of Tammy's on her blog.) We ran in to photographers from all over the country - some old friends, some new. We ended, just before sunset, at a beautiful overlook by the airport, but we were uninspired. There were tons of people, the sun was hitting the rocks at a bad angle, and the large valley meant there was no sense of depth of field. At the last minute we decided to ditch the site and drove in to town. We quickly scoped the area, pulled in to a parking lot and had an incredible view in three directions. We had (literally) 2 minutes before the rocks fell into shade and the sun disappeared. It felt magical that we were able to have those few minutes. We had some good Mexican food, made some more friends, and made it back to Phoenix - tired, but very satisfied.

1 comment:

Donald Heller said...

So happy you posted a picture of Nadia and her B52s, and not just her name tag. I assume she's the one all the way on the left?