cassidy2002

I know that Sedona has been reported on quite a bit, but this was my first trip in a long while & I would feel cheated if I didn't get to write a little report!

Flew from Detroit to Phoenix on Monday the 21st. We flew Southwest & had a great flight. Crew was super nice, and even though we took off 20 minutes late, we still arrived 15 minutes early.

Picked up the rental car and drove the 1.5 hour drive to Sedona. We were visiting my parents who are retired & spend from Jan to April uot there. They have a rental condo in the Village of Oak Creek, on a golf course. Condo was nice w/ a beautiful view of Bell & Cathedral rock from their patio.

The first night we just went to the end of their road and had dinner at Maria's. This used to be a fave of my folks, but they vowed never to dine their again after uor experience. The food & service was terrible. To be fair, they were horribly understaffed (a sin once the tourist season starts)so we tried to take the service with a grain of (margarita) salt, but it was HORRID!! I ordered carne asada, that came out as tough as shoe leather. Ich! Like I said, my parents used to love this place, but will never go in again.

Tuesday AM, my DH & dad went golfing at Stoneridge GC near Prescott, and my mom & I did Jerome. I love that little town. My mom had to drag me out of Nelly Bly's, a GREAT jewelery store. I would've spent every vacation dime in there if it wasn't for her. After wandering Jerome, we drove 89A through Sedona and up through Oak Creek Canyon. What a beautiful drive! Glad I was a passenger on that one! Tuesday evening, we met my DH & DD for dinner at Murphy's in Cottonwood. Good food, good service. Nothing too special, but my dad had a wonderful toasted ravioli dish w/ alfredo sauce. Good stuff.

Wednesday we drove through Jerome & over the Mingus mountain to Prescott. Another beautiful drive that I was perfectly happy to be a passenger on. Switchbacks, etc. Prescott was OK. We browsed the "Whiskey Row" area and had lunch at the Palace. Neat old place, just had hamburgers. Service wasn't so great, but the kitchen was slammed by a catering order and our waiter was very apologetic about the wait. Weather was really windy & rather cold so we decided against walking around more & headed back to Sedona. Dinner Wednesday was at the Javelina Cantina where I finally got my carne asada! Great margaritas, my DH had a chimichanga the size of his forearm and tasted great too. Food was great!

Thursday we hit the Sedona tourist trap shops where I picked up little trinkets for co-workers. Had lunch at the Oak Creek Brewery in Tlaquepaque (sp?) and it was wonderful! DH had the Earl of Steak of sandwich and it was wonderful. I wish I had gotten it, even though my reuben was fine. Mom's BLT looked great as well, with apple smoked thick bacon...yum!

We had an early flight on Friday so we headed back to Phoenix at stayed at the Hilton Phoenix Airport which I got on Priceline for $40 a night. Great deal! Hotel was great & the hotel bar (where we spent the evening watching the NCAA tournament, Go Michigan State!) was fine.

Took the hotel shuttle to Sky Harbor & headed home Friday AM.

All in all, had a wonderful time. Weather could have been better, but it was better than it was in MI. ;-) I love Sedona, great scenery & great people! Sorry if this is a little long.....

highbay

Great report cassidy2002! Makes me want to plan another trip out west!

emd

cassidy: I am interested in your parents retirement time out there, as we are thinking of doing that in the Village of Oak Creek. They like it there? Do they have any complaints about the area? I much prefer the Village to Sedona proper.

cassidy2002

They really do! However, next year, they are going to rent a condo closer to Cottonwood on the Verde Sante Fe GC. It's closer to the area where they golf, etc.

My mom really likes where she is now, because she can walk to the village & get coffee, etc but like I said, feels like they're too far away from their favorite courses.

What else would you like to know? I do know that they go through Foothills Property to rent. I can find out what they spend if you like. If I had to guess, I'd say a little over a grand a month but I can find out for sure. It's 2bd/2ba condo.

cassidy2002

Like you, they much prefer Oak Creek to Sedona. I do too, truth be told.

My dad was joking about the fact that you can tell when tourist season starts by the "stoppers" on the side of the road into Sedona!

emd

The Village seems so much more like a normal nieghborhood atmosphere to me. I stayed in the Village on my last two trips in Sedona (after years of staying at Junipine in Oak Creek Canyon and in Sedona proper). When I ate out at Minami (for good sushi and japanese food) and the Marketplace in the outlet center (which I really liked, esp. their live music on Wed. through Fri. nights during dinner) I was among locals, not tourists. And they were friendly and seemed to love living there.
We are planning to rent a house in the Village over Christmast of 2005 and hope to contiune checking out property there then, maybe buy something. The prices just keep going up. I am wondering about why they only spend a few months there a year. I assume they have a home somewhere else that gets too cold that time of year so they fly to the nicer weather. My preference would be to spend most of the year in the Village and the part of the year that gets too hot there, we would go somewhere else.
They really like that particular GC of all the ones Sedona offers? If you don't mind me asking, is it because they have friends who golf at that course or is it because the course is particularly good?

cassidy2002

Yes, they go out there to avoid the Michigan winter & to golf.

Honestly, I don't exactly know their golf patterns. I know that they don't play the GC in Oak Creek (the private one) and they have a group of friends that golf at Verde weekly. I think that they play Beaver Creek a little bit too. But yes, they have a groupd of friends from all over the US that all winter out there & golf together.

You are right about the local feel to Oak Creek. DH & I wandered up to PJ's (local watering hole) one evening and I think we were the only tourists in the place.

Property values are skyrocketing out there! The condo that they rented this year was a 2 beb/2 bath, maybe about 900 sq ft and it was recently purchased for $250,000. While it's a nice place, I don't think it's THAT nice! Of course, I'm sure that a large percentage of that cost is the views of the red rocks......

Also, I don't mind the questions at all! Ask away! I can get more info from them directly if you would like.

emd

Thanks Cassidy. This topic is very much in the forefront for my husband and me right now. One other good thing about the Village is that I don't think it has quite the potential for huge developments going up (like Seven Canyons, which just shot up in the Boynton Canyon area). Maybe I am wrong about that. I'd like to get a grip on the plans for development in the Village area, as I don't want to buy in an area where there are plans for massive developments in the immediate vicinity. When I go in Dec., I hope to figure out the politics of development in the Village, and figure out a way to get and stay informed on what plans there are regarding new real estate devlopments. If your parents have any insight into development plans in the Village or how to get the info, I'll arrange to get my email to you as I'd really like to hear it, but it probably isn't a topic for the forum in general.

cassidy2002

emd, i'm not sure how in tune they are with that stuff, but my mom loves a good investigation!! Get me your e-mail & we can discuss what you need to know!