I confessed on Stratejoy that I don’t get out much.  A combination of liking things a certain way (my coffee, my pillow, my bed, my gym routine), anxiety about leaving Kate, and general air travel disgust kept me grounded in Northern Virginia.

But the time had come.  Dan and I hadn’t been anywhere, alone, together in over two years.  Before we start adding to our family and adding to our schedules and adding to this and that, this was the time to go.

We tossed around a couple different ideas: a couples resort (like Sandals), a weekend in Charlottesville (our alma mater), a couple days in Jackson Hole (a place neither of us have been).  But I kept coming back to the Grand Canyon.

While Dan visited the Grand Canyon with his family back in middle school, I’d never been.  Even though I’m not into travel, I felt pulled to see the Grand Canyon.  So after some talks with my parents (who recently visited the Grand Canyon) and a close friend who used to live in Pheonix, we decided to make Sedona, Arizona our destination.

We fley into Pheonix and drove two hours to Sedona.  We stayed at the Sedona Rouge Hotel and Spa, and it did not disappoint.  We got a great midweek rate, the hotel restaurant was delicious and well priced, and the shower was total luxury.

We arrived in Sedona Tuesday afternoon and immediately set out for a hike.  Several trailheads ran behind our hotel, so we drove one mile and jumped right on the trail and hiked around the Surgarloaf Trail and to the top of the Sugarloaf Summit.

I’m pretty sure I’ve never hiked to the top of anything.  (That’s Coffeepot Rock behind me, my favorite rock formation because coffee is my favorite.)

As a girl from the congested Northern Virginia, I’ve never seen such nothingness.  (Photo credit to Dan for that awesome shot above.)

And so much quiet.  Unlike Great Falls and Burke Lake and other crowded parks and trails, we didn’t see another soul in this trail.  I loved that.

Tomorrow I’ll share our Grand Canyon adventure.

(If you have any questions on the hotel, Sedona, etc…please leave them in the comments or shoot me an email, and I will answer in the comments or in my coming blog posts.)