Nathan and I usually go out and cut our own Christmas tree in early December. He always applies for a permit and we try to make a small trip out of it. We always seem to make some interesting memories on these trips.
One year one of Nathan’s coworkers offered us accommodation’s at their cabin/ store. We showed up and could not believe our eyes.. The whole place was full of stuff for sale, the pictures on the wall, the blankets on the bed, the stuffed animals, the furniture.. We felt so uncomfortable we found a motel to stay the night in.
We distinctly remember a place called The Blue Sapphire… It was a hole in the wall bar. We went because we were so bored. We played cards at the bar and chatted with the locals. It was interesting!
A few winters back, our first winer here in Flagstaff we went out to cut our tree down and got stuck in a huge storm. We were just finishing cutting our tree down and it got really overcast and cold. Once we got back to civilization it began to snow. We got gas and figured we would be alright driving in the storm so we continued on our way back home..
Once we entered the town on strawberry the car started to veer off the road. The road was very ice covered and I knew I no longer had control so I told him to hang on and we went sliding into a very deep ditch in front of the Windmill Corner Inn. The inn keepers son ran out to help us push ourselves out of the ditch and he offered to let us sleep by the fireplace in the lobby since they had no rooms available. We opted to continue driving home in the snow and ended up taking about 3 hours to travel from Strawberry to Flagstaff.
We were so impressed by the kindness of the inn keepers son that we decided to try and check the place out this year on our way through Strawberry.. The innkeeper was nice and the price was low but it wasn’t quite what we were looking. We ended up driving into Payson to find a room with a bathtub for my aching back. We stayed at the Majestic Mountain Inn and had a great dinner at the privately owned Fargo’s Steakhouse.
The thing that surprised me was that we encountered more hunting excursions in the last two days than I have ever experienced in my life!! Hunters were everywhere in trucks, ATV’s and camping. I more dead deer/ elk than I would have liked to..
The tree cutting adventure went well, we had fun and didn’t get shot by hunters so we are happy! Our tree is the perfect size and we got to play in the snow and take some photos!!
It was definitely memorable as always. I love our traditions that we have formed together. It will be so much fun to pass them on to our kids and hopefully see them carry them on. I don’t know that they’ll end up having as much crazy experiences as we do though…that could be tough to beat.