Friday Round-up

Turned in the certification exam and did our presentation and everyone was done with that by around 10:00 a.m. The instructor had a few more things to cover so we ended up eating lunch at InData again. Until this point, we had plans to travel to Flagstaff. The instructor said that there wasn't much in Flagstaff, we should head to Sedona. I guess, according to him, Sedona was "an hour or more" closer to Phoenix. So, around 1:00 p.m. we left for Sedona...oops.

So, we traveled up I-17 towards Sedona...it's amazing when you start hitting the Rocky Mountains. You go from relatively flat Phoenix to some very impressive mountains. I thought it was cool. I just can't imagine the time that it took to build the road system in Arizona. There were points on this trip you would go 20-30 miles and see absolutely nothing but mountains and cacti.

Anyway, 2 hours later we hit Sedona. I'm not saying Sedona is a bad place...it's just a tourist area though. Basically, a few long roads with eateries, shopping and tour companies. It wasn't exactly what we had in mind. On the positive side, you're in the Red Rocks area and, once again, the scenery is surreal. At this point, it was after 3:00 and we were over an hour from Flagstaff and 2 hours from the Grand Canyon. So, we headed on back to Phoenix...the thought of getting to the Grand Canyon and not getting back to Phoenix until after 10:00 wasn't good.

We headed back to Phoenix and hit a mall to buy a couple tourist type items. Back at the hotel, I headed back down to the pool for a little bit...and that just about ends the trip. Look for a complete wrap-up soon.