Sedona

Sedona, Arizona is just a few hours drive from Las Vegas and makes an excellent spot to decompress after the jangle of the casinos. Prepare for hikes and abundant sunshine all the while breathing in the clear desert air.

We stayed at the Casa Sedona Inn and spent the evenings by the fire in the quiet common area. The views from the property and the well appointed rooms were a salve after spending a week in the Las Vegas Convention Center with miles of indoor hiking and the blare of video demos.

The Casa Sedona Inn only serve breakfast which was a wonderful blend of local ingredients and modern creativity. If I lived in Sedona I would get it with curb side pick up — seriously. Get the Eggs Benedict and then hike it off marching up to one of the 4 famous and mysterious vortexes — areas long understood to have special importance. They are spots where it is said the ancient energy either emanates or spirals down and many come to meditate, do yoga or perform other rituals. Just sitting and staring out at the vast expanse of sandstone rock formations is enough to feel re-energized whether or not you believe in New Age trappings.

The weather is milder than the Arizona extremes and, when we were there in April, you could watch the rain blow across the desert from dozens of miles away. It made the precipitous drop alongside the hiking trails a bit more slippery than we liked, but that was all part of the adventure.