I continue learning new travel tips or maybe just meeting more really nice people all the time. This time it came in the form of being upgraded to a suite because when I tried to check in 3 hours early and they didn't have a room ready. Thankfully it turns out that no one wants your pet to have to sit in the car and no one wants your cat hanging out in the lobby. Stitch the Siamese wonder cat safely deposited (curiously he had stopped complaining about this new "travel in the car every day" lifestyle) we headed to our first Trip Advisor/ Yelp #1: Simply Delicious. The name says it all. We split fish tacos and duck tacos and 3 tarts (because vacation and Cartman). It was all fabulous and if you are within a 100 mile radius of flagstaff worth going out of your way just for lunch. Think of it as the antelope canyon (super picturesque slot canyon of restaurants, that is tough to get to but legitimately worth every second). 
Teetering on the edge of food coma, Walnut Canyon National landmark was the next stop (the number 1 Trip Advisor/Yelp attraction). Walnut canyon is a former Hopi residence from 1100 to 1250 where they carved their homes into the side of a hill. They think that up to 400 people lived there at one time. They are unsure as to why the moved on, but one guess is drought. Their homes were exactly the space they needed nothing more and nothing less. It was incredibly picturesque and fun to imagine how they visited one another, there is nothing like a scaling a rock face to borrow some eggs. This place survived for as long as it did because of their strong sense of community and the lack of hierarchy.
After Walnut Canyon we relaxed the rest of the day and wandered around Flagstaff. We finished the evening at one of top the local breweries with "American" portion sizes. Sadly we had already done the number one restaurant.
The next morning we woke up early to do our long run for the marathon, a 15 miler at 830 pace. It is possibly one of the hardest runs I have ever done. I tried to blame the Grand Canyon hiking, however that didn't explain that I couldn't breath. As it turns out when googled, people move to Flagstaff for running camp to train at altitude and we could have run WAY SLOWER and it would have been equivalent and so much less painful. One of the first blog posts that came is is "Flagstaff: A guide to sucking wind". I can't think of many things that are more appropriately titled.
For breakfast it was the #1 coffee shop with pastries the size of our heads. Leaving Flagstaff was difficult for a variety of reasons. Leaving one of my favorite people in the world, starting the final day of the trek to a new place with a ton of unknowns and yet so much history, and beginning my final day of travel headed towards work. The good news is I was soon distracted by the fact that I was in the desert with limited cell reception, an outside thermometer and almost out of gas.
The next morning we woke up early to do our long run for the marathon, a 15 miler at 830 pace. It is possibly one of the hardest runs I have ever done. I tried to blame the Grand Canyon hiking, however that didn't explain that I couldn't breath. As it turns out when googled, people move to Flagstaff for running camp to train at altitude and we could have run WAY SLOWER and it would have been equivalent and so much less painful. One of the first blog posts that came is is "Flagstaff: A guide to sucking wind". I can't think of many things that are more appropriately titled.For breakfast it was the #1 coffee shop with pastries the size of our heads. Leaving Flagstaff was difficult for a variety of reasons. Leaving one of my favorite people in the world, starting the final day of the trek to a new place with a ton of unknowns and yet so much history, and beginning my final day of travel headed towards work. The good news is I was soon distracted by the fact that I was in the desert with limited cell reception, an outside thermometer and almost out of gas.
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