December 7, 2005

• Holy Shit, it's the Grand Canyon!!!

  
  

  

  
  

  So, after the day in Arizona with the disastrous car accident, we were ready to head out to the Grand Canyon.

  
  

   

  
  

  I had an incredible breakfast that day at McDonalds.  I love the sausage, egg and cheese McGriddles.  I know not everyone is a fan of mcgriddles, but I think something that we can all agree on is that McDonalds' hashbrowns are incredible!!!  After breakfast, our tourguide Drew pulled up in front of our hotel in a white van, and picked us up to begin an amazing day.

  
  

   

  
  

   

  
  

  So, the weird thing about arriving at the actual Grand Canyon, is that your mind gets immediately and completely blown away.  Think of driving for hours from Phoenix, seeing the desert terrain, turn into forest terrain, and driving hours and hours towards the Grand Canyon.  You pull up eventually to the Grand Canyon Village, and see a bunch of buildings, then suddenly behind the buildings is a small stone wall which keeps you from falling into the Grand Canyon.  It's utterly beautiful, and I don't think the mind can even comprehend the immensity and beauty.  Everyone comments on how surreal it is, and how it looks like you're just looking at some sort of painting.  Throughout the day Drew took us to different vantage points, and provided really interesting education regarding the geology and ecology of the place.  I loved how the canyon looked so different as the day progressed.  I particularly enjoyed the late afternoon, as beautiful shadows developed that gave more definition to the scenery. 

  
  

   

  
  

  Other highlights of the day included a picnic at the visitor's center, and a trip to a cool observation tower.  Check out Mixygirl in the Lacoste hat she bought in Harajuku, Tokyo.

  
  

   

  
  

  This is a picture of Drew our tourguide, and the van.  I really think that we got more out of our day than if we just drove around ourselves, we learned a lot from him, and had a great time.  After the tour, Drew dropped us back at the hotel.  Looking back, I was so glad that we had the opportunity to see the Grand Canyon.  I've seen it before with Jober and the parents a long time ago, but it's just not something that young people really think of going to visit anymore.  After the tour, we hopped back into our slightly damaged rental SUV and drove treacherously in the dark to Sedona, famous for being red rock country.  We arrived at our amazing resort, called Amara Creek.  We didn't really appreciate how beautiful it was until the next morning, b/c we arrived when it was so dark.  We did have what Mixy and I agreed was our best meal of the trip, at their restaurant named the Gallery on Oak Creek Terrace.

  
  

   

  
  

  We started with their crab cake, featuring jumbo lump crab meat, melted truffled leeks with potato, chive oil, roasted red pepper aoli, and sunzona microgreens.  I liked this dish particularly for their use of truffles.  My policy is that anything with truffle or truffle oil in it is hard to screw up, and it was a pretty kick ass crab cake to start out with. 

  
  

   

  
  

  Both our entrees were Super DHS, which I was not expecting, b/c we didn't really hear about this place before.  On the left is Mixygirl's entree of miso marinated beef steak including sauteed garlic sugar snap pea shoots, ginger scallion risotto, tempura asparagus spears, and toasted sesame seeds.  The wine recommendation was a Riesling which was unusual for a beef dish, but with the light taste of miso and fresh greens, and scallion risotto, the Riesling went perfectly.  A very well executed dish.  On the right is my dish, the House Filet featuring a grilled 8oz beef tenderloin finished with maytag butter, tomato potato gratin, caramelized onion and fennel, vegetable pan roast, and cabernet demi-glace. Didn't sound as interesting at first, but the meat was so tender and the red wine reduction was a great sauce.  Oh, and as Pat and I recently discussed, having caramelized fennel is obviously a positive thing for most dishes.  We went to bed after that, and the next post features our last day in Arizona (which turned out to be pretty amazing as well).

  • 1:46 pm
  • 6 Comments