A Visit to Cottonwood and Jerome

Our rearranged plans took a delightful turn when we discovered that a friend of Phil's, Al Paxia, was at home and able to have us stay overnight at his home in Cottonwood, AZ, just south of Sedona. I had only met Al briefly, so it was a nice opportunity to spend more time with him. A former techie at Boeing Computer Services, he lived on Vashon Island when Phil met him a few years ago, and went shooting with him several times. Al also built his own experimental plane, which unfortunately was undergoing its annual service inspection, or he would have flown us over the Grand Canyon.

Al is now living full time in Arizona, and we met his new girlfriend, Judy, whom we very much enjoyed. It was a lovely visit and I look forward to repeating it.

They took us up to the former mining town of Jerome, perched high up on the mountainside above Cottonwood, where we tasted (and bought) some Arizona wine, in a shop with a fantastic view ove the valley. No kidding--they are growing a number of wines here, and they weren't bad at all.

Here's a picture of Jerome, which doesn't really show how much it clings to the steep hillside. it's been revived as a sort of touristy hippie place, a bit like Bisbee in southern Arizona.