Recently we took a road trip to the Grand Canyon and Santa Fe.  We took along our Vista stroller from UPPAbaby.  The stroller comes with both a bassinet and a regular stroller seat.  We also bought the car seat adaptor which allows you to use the stroller with your car seat.  The stroller frame itself weighs 18lbs, which isn’t light, but considering the big wheels, shock absorption and easy steering, isn’t that heavy, either.  It folds easily and didn’t take up too much room in the back of our mid-sized SUV.

The stroller seat and the car seat adaptor can both snap in both ways – facing you or facing forward.  You can fold the stroller with the seat attached, but only if the seat is facing forward.  Since our daughter is still a baby, we like to have her facing us, which means that you have to take the seat off first.  It’s not hard, but it does take two hands.  When the bassinet, seat or car seat adaptor are snapped in correctly there are two little red circles – one on each side of the stroller – which turn green.  We find it really nice to know that everything’s safe and ready to go.

Before this trip we really found it annoying that you could snap the car seat adaptor in “the wrong way”.  We couldn’t imagine wanting to have it facing forward.  Then we went for a walk along the Rim Trail at the Grand Canyon.  Our daughter had fallen asleep in the car (a rarity for her).  We didn’t want to wake her, so we snapped in the car seat adaptor.  Only thing was that the sun was on our backs, making the sun shade useless.  A quick turn of the car seat adaptor and she was in total shade!

Although we have and use the Phil and Ted’s travel cot, the bassinet made sleeping at the hotel super easy.     Had she been younger we would have used it in the stroller during the day, too.  We used to before she became much more interested in looking out at the world around her.

The Vista has a large basket which makes it easy to take all the stuff you need with you for the day.  We didn’t even need to carry a backpack this time!  The back of it can be pushed down to allow you easy access to everything, too.

The only thing we really wish UPPAbaby would make is a mesh sunshade.  In fact, when we first bought our stroller the mesh bug screen that is included was described as being for the sun as well.  It turned out to be only SPF 5 and is now no longer described as a sunshade.  Even though the fabric sunshade is very large and extends way out, sometimes the angle of the sun just makes it hard to get complete coverage.  We wind up covering our daughter up with blankets which means that she can’t see and doesn’t get air circulation which makes it very hot and uncomfortable.  As you can see in the photo above we tried a stroller umbrella with limited success, but a mesh sunshade would be perfect.

All in all, we were really pleased with the way the stroller performed.  It’s super easy to push, even on surfaces that aren’t or are poorly paved.  The basket is large and carries a lot of stuff easily.  The bassinet gives you an easy solution to sleeping in the hotel.  The car seat adaptor and the forward or rear facing seat all give you lots of options to keep your little one shady and comfortable.  But best of all – it’s all machine washable!  All the fabric can be taken off and thrown in the wash.  So when you get home from your trip a little grubby, it’s no problem!  We’ll definitely be traveling with our UPPAbaby Vista stroller again – we’ll only be sorry that our little one will soon be too big for the bassinet!

The architecture downtown is traditionally southwestern with old adobe buildings each with a covered area in front – perfect for shelter from the hot sun or the rain – yes, we managed to visit on a day when it actually rained!

We enjoyed shopping in front of the Governor’s Palace.  Apparently, Native (Indian) people have been selling their handicrafts there for centuries.  Today they still gather to sell handmade jewelery.  It was lots of fun to browse through all the different stuff for sale and actually meet the people who made it.  It’s nice to know that your souvenir is actually made in the place you’ve visited rather than in some factory on the other side of the world!

We also visited the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum ($10 for those over 18).  It’s not a huge collection and it only took us about 30 min. to tour the whole gallery.  Still, we enjoyed it and it’s apparently the largest collection of her work.  It’s right downtown (about a 5 min stroll from the plaza) so it’s conveniently located.

We visited the St. Francis Cathedral.  Built from 1869 to 1886, it sits about a 1 minute walk from the plaza.  On the way there you’ll pass La Fonda’s Creperie (La Fonda is a 4 star hotel right off the plaza).  The crepes were fabulous! We ordered lunch crepes to go (Ian had ham and cheese and I had ratatouille – approximately $7-$8/each.  We also tried their dessert crepes – Ian had the apricot – not that good since the apricots weren’t fresh – and I had the strawberry and Nutella – fabulous!) and ate in the park right next to the Cathedral.  There are benches and lots of trees plus plenty of grass – it made for a lovely shady picnic spot.  The cathedral is pleasant and pretty, but certainly doesn’t compare to the great cathedrals we’ve seen in Europe.

We also checked out the Loretto Chapel, $3.  The first day we walked over there only to find it closed for a wedding. The next day it was back open, again.  It’s home to a spiral staircase that’s supposed to have been built miraculously in response to the nuns’ prayers.  We don’t know about the miraculous bit, but it’s a nice staircase and a pretty little chapel.   Again it’s a 2 minute stroll from the plaza, so it’s easy to visit.

Our second day there we got lunch at one of the little carts in the Plaza.  Ian had beef fajitas that weren’t great.  I had a chile relleno burrito – yes, you read that right.  Well, chile relleno (large hot pepper stuffed with cheese battered, fried and served in a tomato sauce) I like, but this was like no chile relleno I’ve ever had.  There was very little cheese, no tomato sauce and it just wasn’t very good.  Washing it all down with some cold lemonade on a shady park bench in the plaza, however, was very nice!

We enjoyed strolling around and shopping in the many, many art galleries and jewelery stores.    People were friendly and laid-back and it was very relaxing.

Our third night in Santa Fe we ate at The Shed.  It bills itself as offering innovative cooking and is right downtown.  You  need a reservation as they are very busy.  They have a lovely courtyard with umbrella shaded tables which would have been lovely had it not been raining.  The restaurant is decorated with brightly colored artwork.  To start they offered us chips and guacamole and salsa – it’s $7.25.  The guacamole is passable and the salsa spicy and vinegary but otherwise tasteless – not worth the price, in our opinion.  Ian had the chicken enchilada plate with green chile sauce.  Despite their warning that it was spicy he found it tasteless.  I had the Green Chile Burrito.  It had pinto beans, white cheddar cheese and onions rolled in a flour tortilla and covered with green chile sauce.  It came with Spanish rice.  I ordered the chile sauce on the side and our waiter suggested I try  them both, so I got to try both the red and green sauces.  The red chile is definitely spicier.  The green is pretty mild.  The burrito itself was really tasteless.  Overall we really didn’t enjoy the food and don’t see where the innovative or creative part is at all.  We’ve had far better Mexican food at small street stands.  The service, on the other hand, was great.  Our waiter was very attentive and we were served promptly despite the fact that the restaurant was quite crowded.

Our second night in Santa Fe we ate at a great pizza place, Rooftop Pizzeria, on Water Street, across from the plaza. We ordered Pizza #7, which came with roasted whole cloves of garlic, artichokes, zucchini, squash, and Kalamata (black) olives, $17 (we split the 14 inch).  It had a great thin crust and came with pesto rather than tomato sauce.  There was no cheese but we were offered grated Parmesan.  There were mounds of vegetables.  Dinner was so good we decided to have dessert.  We chose the “Chocolate Pot”, $5, which was a flourless chocolate cake with a consistency somewhere half-way between cake and pudding.  It came with a vanilla sauce on top which was very tasty.  The whole thing was very chocolaty – yummy!  Ian washed it all down with a passable cappuccino.  The views were nice and there was an awning overhead and roller shades they pulled down to keep us from being blinded by the setting sun.  All in all a great meal for a reasonable price in a very pleasant setting with good service!

While in Santa Fe, we stayed at the Days Inn.  When we first started to look for a hotel we checked out all the ones right near the plaza, thinking it would be easier to be able to walk everywhere instead of needing to drive.  The prices were very high and we had no luck with Priceline this time.  So, we started looking at hotels further out along Cerillos Road.  There are all the big US chains along there – Holiday Inn Express, Travelodge, Motel 6, Red Roof Inn, etc.  We checked online (Expedia, Kayak) and on the individual websites and called 1-800 (toll free) numbers for the big chains but there were no real deals.  Then we picked up a coupon booklet at a gas station while we were in Williams, AZ and found the Days Inn for $44.  They honoured that price even though we stayed for 3 days and only gave them one coupon.  (There are coupon booklets available free at gas stations and outside some restaurants – like Denny’s – all across America.  We’ve used them before and found fabulous deals).  It was about a 10 min drive to downtown and parking downtown was super easy.  Santa Fe has numerous public parking lots and you can park all day for $9 – so to us it’s not worth paying more to stay downtown and avoid driving.

The room was clean and big enough to be comfortable.  The bathroom had a tub/shower combination.  It was quiet at night.  There is a nice pool area with loungers around the pool and nice landscaping.  There are lots of restaurants near-by and a Target conveniently about 5 min. down the road – perfect for all those things you forgot/ran out of (Target is like Walmart or Carrefour). There is a free breakfast with cereal, juice, toast and muffins available in the morning.

Our first night in Santa Fe we ate at Mu Du Noodles. It was recommended in our Lonely Planet Guidebook. The restaurant doesn’t look like much from the outside and the neighborhood doesn’t look like it has great restaurants either (we passed a piercing place and a tattoo parlor on the block before it). Inside it is decorated in an import store way – very nice and intimate. They were busy the night we ate there and now that we’ve had their food we know why!

We started off with the samosas. The plate came with 4 small pieces, very light, and crispy. They were much less doughy than a regular samosa. There was a strong taste of onions and they were mildly spicy, but overall not exciting.

Things really picked up however when the main courses arrived. Wendy had the vegetarian Lime Pesto Noodles. The tofu was firm, and lightly fried. The vegetables were crisp. Yum! Ian had the Yaki Udon Noodles. They were spicy, but not overwhelmingly so, the chicken was tender, and the vegetables were perfectly prepared.

The restaurant itself was small and intimate, but very loud (perfect for our baby who loves loud environments!).

Visiting the south rim of the Grand Canyon with an infant was very easy. The rim trail is mostly a handicap accessible trail, with lots of shady benches (logs) and views right from the concrete path. We have an Uppababy Vista stroller with good wheels that also helped with some of the rougher parts of the path, but certainly wasn’t necessary. Some of the viewpoints required walking down a short set of stairs, so we ended up trading off watching our daughter while the other took photos. The Yavapi Observation building is an air conditioned building right on the rim trail, with beautiful views of the canyon and explanations of the geological history of the canyon. There’s also bottled water for sale, and restrooms in the parking lot nearby (but no change table, oddly enough). We also drove the East Rim Drive, and checked out many of the views from the pullouts – for some of them we didn’t even need to get out of the car.

While the Grand Canyon is beautiful, and very impressive, it certainly didn’t awe us as much as other places in the world have. We couldn’t quite put our finger on – but for us it just doesn’t rank among the most beautiful natural places in the world.

That evening we ate at the Pizza Factory. It’s across the street from Cruiser’s Route 66 Cafe. The restaurant is very casual – you order at the counter and seat yourself. Most of the tables are picnic tables with plastic table cloths. They do bring your food to your table. Ian had the Route 66 special pizza and I had the vegetarian – we would recommend both. There was lots of choice in toppings, and the pizza was very good. There is also a salad bar which seemed to have a decent number of choices.

Today we headed from Barstow, CA to Williams, AZ. On the way we stopped at the High Sierra Oasis for gas. We were super thankful to see it appear as we were very low on gas and still miles from the next gas our GPS knew about. The guy who worked there confirmed that none of the GPS units know about them. The prices were a little on the high side, but stuck out in the middle of nowhere, with miles to go to the next stop, we were happy to pay the $3 for an ice cream on a 106F day (41C). Along with clean bathrooms they also have a restaurant. Ian had a beef burrito which was huge and good and I had a veggie burger (yes, believe it or not in the middle of nowhere I was able to find a veggie burger!) with fries. The total came to $17. A bit pricy, but super convenient.

The drive is easy – the I40 is in great shape and the road is straight and fairly level. The scenery is beautiful with flat desert covered in scrub brush bounded by mountains. It’s fairly empty – we saw very few towns along the way. Although at one point there was oddly a subdivision in the middle of nowhere. We have no idea where those people work.

Williams is a convenient stopping point for visiting the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. It’s about an hour away, and has a cute small downtown area with lots of souvenir shops. We ate at Cruiser’s Cafe 66 Bar and Grill, a kitschy American diner right on Main St, complete with an old Chevy on the roof. There is a large outdoor patio on the road, where we ate.

There was a guitarist playing popular music in the corner, loud but not obnoxiously so. Ian had the BBQ pork ribs ($20), which came with corn, chili, and coleslaw which oddly enough had walnuts in it. The ribs were mostly good, but some of the meat was not as tender as the rest. It was a little too much on the warm instead of hot side. Wendy had the vegetarian lasagna ($14), which we definitely wouldn’t recommend. It was basically 2 layers of pasta with a cream sauce and very few vegetables. Ian enjoyed trying some of the local Grand Canyon beer. The service was great, and the atmosphere was great – too bad the food didn’t match.

While in Williams, we scored a Hotwire “deal” of $79 a night for the Holiday Inn. It’s located right off the freeway, and about a 5 minute drive from downtown. The common areas of the hotel looked old and worn. Check-in was painfully slow, even though I was the only one. The hotel is on 2 different floors, with no elevator. When I complained about this, they gave us a handicapped accessible room on the first floor (the hotel was fully booked and no one truly needed that room).

The room was large, but this may not be standard, since we had a handicapped accessible room. The first issue we had was that the remote was missing from the TV. It took the guy several tries to find us one that worked, but he was very nice. The light beside our bed mysteriously turned itself on in the middle of the night – waking us up. It was touch sensitive, so maybe it just got confused? The big problem we had with the room, though, was that the hot water was BOILING hot. AND the tap often poured out hot water on the cold setting. We burned ourselves several times.

The Holiday Inn is a hotel where lots of families stay and it seems very dangerous to us to have the water so hot and the tap so confused.

Today we drove to Barstow, CA, which is about 100 miles (160 km) northeast of L.A. It’s on the way to Williams, AZ, which provides convenient access to the Grand Canyon. The town is full of all the chain motels/hotels. We stayed at the Econolodge. It was basic, but okay. It was quiet enough, and the linens were clean. There was plenty of hot water and the water pressure was fine. The shower sported 1970s pink tile and plenty of mildew. Not terrible but not the best, either. The room also had a fridge and a microwave and bizarrely a walk-in closet! There was a pool which looked clean enough, but we didn’t actually use it. Breakfast was included but wasn’t very good. There was stale white bread, pre-packaged
muffins, bagels, juice and coffee. Overall, it was a decent value for the $60 we paid (including tax). Apparently they have newly renovated the rooms on the second floor, so those might be better.

For dinner we chose to order in food, although there is a Carrows right next door (family dining) and the hotel manager also recommended an Italian place which was next door on the other side. We ordered Chinese from the ICF Restaurannt, which featured an interesting mix of Chinese, American and Mexican food. There is no delivery charge and it only took about 30 min. to arrive. The food looked great, but unfortunately wasn’t. The vegetables were all overcooked and the food was rather tasteless. We split an order of egg rolls (they’re vegetarian) which weren’t crisp. Ian had the kung pao shrimp which was pretty tasteless with very few shrimp and I had mixed vegetables with tofu. The tofu was nicely done, but the sauce was tasteless and the vegetables limp.

Overall, we wouldn’t recommend it although you certainly can’t beat the convenience of eating in your own room.