Flitting through Flagstaff

Flagstaff, Arizona

Wednesday October 5, 2016 – Thursday October 6, 2016

Written 10/17/24

Traveling from Albuquerque, New Mexico - Approx: a 4-1/2 hour drive. This was part of a longer road trip that started in St. Louis, Missouri and ended in Las Vegas, Nevada. It included: Kansas City, MO, Kansas City, KS, Oklahoma City, OK, Amarillo, TX, Albuquerque, NM, Flagstaff, AZ and Las Vegas, NV.

Boo!

Planning this leg of the trip was fun because I had never visited Flagstaff or Arizona, and it brought out my adventurous spirit. The hotel I reserved for the night was the Hotel Monte Vista. Rumor has it, it is haunted. This wouldn’t be my first experience staying in a haunted hotel, and I don’t particularly seek them out, but I also don’t shy away from them.  So, if I do nothing else in Flagstaff, I will at least walk away with my “historic” experience. I do try to visit at least one historic place I travel to, plus since this stop was intentionally brief, I needed to make the most of my time.

Boo too! – But For a Different Reason

We rolled into Flagstaff just about 5:00PM. It’s very close to I-40 which is the road we are traveling on a lot of the time, and Route 66 runs directly through the city and right near where our hotel is. The hotel parking area was smaller than I expected. It was along the side of the building and the spots were filled. I was stressing that they were filled for the night and really didn’t know what to do. I drove around the area a couple of times in hopes that a parking spot would open up. This also helped us look around at what was near to the hotel. I noticed there were two colleges in less than 2 miles, Northern Arizona University and Coconino Community College. As luck would have it, just about the time I was going to call the hotel to find out about other parking options, a car left a vacant parking space. I snagged it, and we started to grab our luggage.

I was really looking forward to a coffee or some sort of fancy beverage at the restaurant on the main floor, called the Rendezvous. I remember reading that it was open past midnight and that appealed to me, especially since we have been arriving at our next destinations in the evening or later. We were up and on the move a lot earlier today due to us watching some of the balloons take off at the Albuquerque, NM balloon festival and I had a pretty bad headache so an easily planned evening with not much thought was exactly what I wanted.

I barely remember check-in; I do vaguely remember walking through the hall to our room. One of the rooms we passed to get to ours was said to have hauntings. Our room for the night was a few doors down. Upon entering the room, the first thing I noticed was the bedspreads were flowery and that made the room very cheery. The room also had windows that could be opened or closed, they were open when we arrived. I dropped my stuff down at the closest bed to the door, laid back, and that is the last thing I remember from that night. I fell asleep! When I woke up the next morning I was really annoyed. The restaurant downstairs didn’t open again until late afternoon. We’d be gone by then. I still had a headache, and I was hungry. It was super early too, like 6:00AM. What a mess! I read that my headache could have been because of a lot of things, dehydration for one. But the high elevation in Flagstaff was something I hadn’t thought of. So, maybe that was the reason I had a headache the entire time I was awake in Flagstaff.

Photo 1: inside our room at Hotel Monte Vista

Photo 2: Hotel Monte Vista sign on the top of the hotel

Early Risers – Again?!

Meanwhile, being sympathetic to my whining, my partner found us a place to eat around the corner. It was in Historic Downtown Flagstaff, in a small mall called Old Town Shops. The place was a coffee shop and bakery, called MIX Flagstaff. At this point, my headache was so bad I was a zombie. The poor guy at the counter asked what I wanted. I mumbled, “cawfee” in my New Yawkist accent probably, LOL! We also ordered two breakfast sandwiches and an order of French toast to split. Maybe I could eat my headache away. I took my coffee and sat at one of the tables and looked around a bit. The dining area was set inside a half wall so that you can watch people walking through the mall. It was still several hours before the other stores would open, so there really weren’t many people to watch, but the set up was nice. You could see and be seen but tucked away enough that you weren’t in foot traffic. My partner picked up our breakfast and sat down at the table with me, we talked about what we wanted to see before we left the area. Our planned drive for today was only 4 hours, and it was 8:00AM so we had plenty of time to look around.  We still needed to buy T-shirts and magnets, luckily, we were in the historic district so something should be close by.

Photo 1: a view of MIX Flagstaff from inside Old Town Shops

Photo 2: Masonic Temple nearby

We walked through the mall to see what was around. All the stores were closed because of the early hour. We didn’t notice any souvenir shops, but I probably could have spent an hour looking around at some of the stores. All of them were locally owned businesses, including MIX, I like that! As we headed back to the hotel, we spent some time noticing the local buildings and reading any information that was posted outside them. It wasn’t a far walk, and it was leisurely.

A Little Morning Music

Shortly after I returned to the hotel room, and while I was packing up to leave, I received a phone call from a co-worker. While I spoke with her, I heard music being played outside on the street. It was like someone was playing a wind instrument and the sound drifted into the open window. I peeked outside and saw a man on the corner across the street playing a flute or something similar. It was relaxing and really set the tone for my experience in Flagstaff.

Photo 1: a TelePoem - You pick a poem then hear it recited through the phone receiver.

Photo 2: street view with a bluegrass music festival banner

Photo 3: another view of the Hotel Monte Vista

Wrapping It Up

On our way out of town, we searched for a place where we could buy T-shirts and magnets that said Arizona. It was a surprisingly difficult task even using our phones to search the area. Some of the issues we encountered were that businesses hadn’t opened up yet (it was before noon) and others weren’t open the day we were in town. This was the first time I had encountered such a situation. We wound up checking out the Flagstaff Visitors Center to see if they had any suggestions, and when we entered, there was a gift store with exactly what we were looking for. Twenty minutes later, we were saying goodbye to Flagstaff and discussing when we’d return.

A little tidbit about the Visitors Center, it’s located on Route 66 as part of the Flagstaff Amtrak train station. More history!

a train as part of the Historic Santa Fe passenger train depot

What we found, Flagstaff has a college town vibe so there are lots of little corners to explore with unique shops and cafes. To add to the flavor, there are strong Native American influences throughout the area such as architecture, art, and events. The city also has quite a history. As did the hotel we stayed at.  

Things I learned from planning this trip: Pack aspirin. When looking for souvenirs; like key chains, magnets and t-shirts with the name of the city or state on them, consider stopping at a Visitors Center.

Things I keep in mind when organizing a trip for myself: leave something to come back for: I want to stay in this hotel again, I want to experience the bar downstairs, I want to spend at least a weekend in Flagstaff, exploring restaurants, museums, learn more about the Native American culture. Maybe visit the college campuses. I enjoy looking at the landscape and architecture of campuses.

Some information, such as baseball game information and directions were sought by using ChatGPT and Perplexity

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