A Mirror To The Past

Yesterday, I talked about a fountain my friend and I had seen on our trip to Phoenix. Now, I need to tell you about what we saw on the way back from there.

First, we decided to go to Sedona. She had never been there before so we went a scenic route I ‘d never taken. Both of us were pleasantly surprised to find it nice even though their seemed to be a lot of traffic. Once we had gotten into Sedona though I was floored.

When I had originally gone there, it was a sleepy bedroom community where one could communicated with the beauty of nature. Who was I kidding? This place was a hubbub of activity. There were no places to park and no way did we even want to do so as people were everywhere. It was no longer serene or peaceful and we went straight through very downtrodden as we couldn’t even get out and take in the beauty of the place.

As we went up Oak Creek, a winding road which takes us to the top of the mountain, she could at least see what I was talking about. We climbed and climbed for what seemed like hours. The traffic this way wasn’t as bad. At the top, there is a place where Native American artisans sell their wares and I was excited it was still there. I had first been to the place in the ‘90s coming home from the same conference. I was amazed it was still there and a stable of the area. It was wonderful and magnificant. I even managed to pick up some new, well priced pottery for my collection.

By coming this way, we made it so that we went through Flagstaff, one of my favorite places in the world. Flagstaff is one of only three places, other than Scotland, I’ve ever wanted to live. The other two are anywhere in Montana where the mountains are and Los Alamos, New Mexico. Those two will be left for later blogs as I have plenty to say about them. LOL!

Now we decided that we were going to eat in Flagstaff and take a break from the drive. We didn’t necessarily want to do it in the new section of town because they have a wonderful old section with lots of cool things. It took us a while to get the lay of the land as we drove around the many one way streets in old downtown but finally we found a parking spot close to where we wanted to eat. We visited a candle shop where we purchased various little aromatherapy items for home then moved on to a place called Charly’s Grill in the Weatherford Hotel.

Wow is the first word that comes to mind when we entered the hotel. It was built in 1899 and opened its doors to the public in 1900. It’s had its share of trials and tribulations but is now owned by a family who lovingly restores it bit by bit. When we went in, my friend and I just looked at each other. See, both of us get feelings I guess is the best way to describe it for lack of a better description. We could just feel the history ebb through and around us as we sat there eating our meal in the comfortable surroundings.

While we sat there, we noticed the mirror at our backs and I kept staring at it. Out of the blue, she tells me she’s seen that mirror before. My heart clutches as I tell her I feel the same but can’t put my finger on it. It is an ornate, top to bottom, mirror from the early 1900s and is beautiful. It reminded me of a lot of the antiques I’ve received of my grandmother’s. But as we sat there we both had a sudden urge to leave yet something wanted us to stay. We’d have loved to stay in one of the restored rooms to better explore those feelings but alas, we were on our way home and needed to be on our way.

We both had to go to the bathroom before we left and as we went through the bar and stage area, both realtively unchanged since they were built, we kept feeling the pull of the place. Here’s the website so you can explore http://www.weatherfordhotel.com/ nd a couple of pictures of the mirror we saw at the top of the blog.

What does it say to you? Have you ever been in a place where you felt deja vu or something else? What were those experiences like for you?

See you tomorrow!

Lynn