Thursday, October 14, 2010e

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Tonight's picture was taken in October of 2008. Mattie was in the PICU recovering from his first limb salvaging surgery. As you can see, Mattie was surrounded by beautiful women. Going from left to right was Jenny, Jessie, and Elizabeth. Jenny and Jessie were Mattie's fabulous art therapists  and Elizabeth was interning as an art therapist in training with Jenny and  Jessie. That particular day they did various activities with Mattie. Jenny and Jessie were helping Mattie blow bubbles to get him to expand his lungs after surgery, and they were also creating fans out of popsicle sticks. Elizabeth on the other hand brought a blank journal book with her, and was encouraging Mattie to use it to draw and express himself on paper whenever he wanted a quiet moment. I will never forget the energy in Mattie's room that day. Also notice the beautiful handprints all over Mattie's hospital door. These handprints were created by Mattie's friends at school. These special gifts brightened our room, our world, and also gave Mattie something to talk to others about. This was very important, because without outside stimulation it was hard to get engaged in conversation. Confinement in a hospital can greatly impact how one physically feels as well as how one feels as a social person.

Quote of the day: There is a joy in heaven when a tear of sorrow is shed in the presence of a truly understanding heart. And heaven will never forget that joy. ~ Charles Malik

Before I tell you about our day's adventure, check out tonight's quote. Perhaps read it more than once. I know I had to! What exactly does this quote mean? It evokes many thoughts within me, but I think the one that I have come to accept is this.... feeling grief and sitting with others through their grief are very challenging. I know that finding someone to express my grief to, who has a truly understanding heart, is a very special gift. Which is why there is joy in heaven when such a connection is made. Grieving the loss of a child in and of itself is impossible, but to do this alone (or worse with others who do not understand), would make life unbearable. Having lost Mattie enables me to understand the depth of this quote.

To recap our trip, on Monday we drove from Los Angeles, CA to Williams, AR. On Tuesday, we boarded the Grand Canyon Railroad to get to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. We spent about a day at the Canyon, and then on Wednesday, we returned to Williams, AR. Today, we then drove from Williams to Sedona, AR. We have covered a lot of territory in a very short period of time. Williams is a true railroad town, filled with history, and a flavor of time gone by. I have never experienced the beauty of American nostalgia before, and as Peter drove us down the historic Route 66 today, I tried to imagine what life must have been like for Williams before the development of Interstate 40!

 

One of the original U.S. highways, Route 66 (also known as the Mother Road or the Main Street of America) was established on November 11, 1926. Route 66 was a major path of the migrants who went west, especially during the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, and supported the economies of the communities through which the road passed. People doing business along the route became prosperous due to the growing popularity of the highway, and those same people later fought to keep the highway alive even with the growing threat of being bypassed by the new Interstate Highway System. US 66 was officially removed from the United States Highway System on June 27, 1985 after it was decided the route was no longer relevant and had been replaced by the Interstate Highway System.

In 1926, U. S. Highway 66 was established through Williams, Arizona. A little over half a century later, on October 13, 1984, it became the last bypassed town along the "Mother Road," as old Highway 66 became Interstate 40. Today, all of downtown Williams is on the National Register of Historic Places, and its largely-unchanged main street evokes images of the legendary route. Williams the town is also like a slice of small-town America, a place where they still hold a local beauty queen contest, and the clerk at the local mini-mart gives out tips about where to eat. Old Route 66 runs from I-40 Exit 161 to Exit 165. Parallel one-way streets run through downtown, and the eastbound one, Bill Williams Avenue, is old Route 66.



Many of the signs on the store fronts are originals, and this particular one captured our attention today. I enjoyed this walk back through time, and Mattie would have been able to relate to this story quite well, since the essence of it (a thriving town made obsolete by the establishment of the interstate) was covered in the movie, Cars. A movie Mattie watched many, many times.

Our trip from Williams, AR to Sedona, AR was about an hour's drive. It was an adventure though through 89A, a very windy one lane canyon road. When we started our journey on this road we were at 7000 feet above sea level, and as we descended into Sedona, we ended up at around 4000 feet above sea level.

Sedona is a magnificent city, whose terrain is simply remarkable and breathtaking. Sedona is known as "red rock country." What makes these rocks their glorious red color? Iron!  Sandstone is porous, and when water carrying dissolved iron drains through the sandstone, some of the iron is left behind, and it is this iron in the form of iron oxide, which is red, that coats the grains of quartz and gives it color. The history of Sedona's formation dates back to 320 million years ago. The area of Sedona lay under water in a sea, and the first layer of Sedona's rock formation came from the shells of sea creatures. Later, rivers deposited sediment that is now red sandstone that easily erodes. About 275 million years ago, sand that was eroded from ancient mountains and carried by ancient rivers was deposited in a delta, now Sedona. In the Sedona area, sometimes a sea covered the land, and at other times the area of Sedona was a flood plain adjacent to the seacoast. Either way, sediment settled onto it. Rocks from this time constitute the most colorful rocks in the Sedona area and is commonly referred to as the Schnebly Hill Formation. Eventually, about 1900 feet of rock covered the entire Sedona area.

The story about how Sedona was named is well known. As the story goes, after Theodore Carl Schnebly and his wife, Sedona, moved to Sedona from Gorin, Missouri, the few families living here convinced T.C. to establish a post office in his large home, which already had become the community's hotel. Various interpretations of this story suggest that he asked the government to name the post office Schnebly Station or Red Rock Crossing. Subsequently, he was told the names were too long, and following a suggestion by his brother, Dorsey Ellsworth Schnebly, he submitted his wife's name, Sedona. The city was incorporated in 1988, is 19 square milies long, and has a population of 10,000 people.

We had lunch at Enchantment Resort in Sedona, Arizona today. This resort received Travel and Leisure's World's Best Award for 2009. What an incredible place, set on 70 acres of panoramic natural terrain, surrounded by red-rock formations. I am not sure when I last saw a more peaceful, beautiful, and serene setting. In fact, while having lunch, the picture below shows you what I was looking at. An incredible rock formation, birds singing and flying around, and NO noise! To see more pictures of this enchanted place, visit www.enchantmentresort.com.

At lunch, Peter ordered cactus with a prickly pear sauce! I snapped a picture of him eating it! No it doesn't taste like chicken, it tastes like zucchini!

After lunch, our waiter was kind enough to take a picture of all four of us!

Along our journey today, Peter snapped a picture of this lizard! Naturally in honor of Mattie. Mattie was in love with all things that were creepy and crawling!

I took many pictures around Sedona today, several of them I posted below. Truly incredible formations that are almost too difficult to describe. However, after seeing the Grand Canyon yesterday, I feel as if I am getting a good feeling for what it must be like to descend into the Canyon. Because to me, Sedona gives me the impression of what it must be like to be at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. To be completely surrounded by rock!

We walked through the main street of Sedona today which is filled with charming shops. The shops all feature beautiful hand crafted jewelry designed by Native American Indian tribes. The silver, turquoise, and spiny oyster shell (which looks like coral) are simply beautiful. Sedona is a charming town, of which a one day visit does not do it justice. We pack up tomorrow and drive back to Los Angeles, since Peter returns to Washington, DC on Saturday.