It’s only a little over a ninety minute ride for us to hop in the car and visit the beautiful red rocks of Sedona Arizona. There are the usual tourist shops to visit, some antique shops, jeep tours, some Arizonian wine tasting rooms to do too and more!

Our first stop was Clarksdale.

Our first stop was Violette’s Bakery. They offer some all day breakfast items, a few all day lunch sandwiches, and fine French Style pastries. I saw this place on a local TV show and they said this is a MUST destination if you are in the area. The bakery is a small postage stamp sized place that is actually a small caboose without indoor seating. You sit around the train car or inside this added on edition.

You wait in line at the train with a tiny bakery inside.

It looks like this when you get to the window.

On the day I went they had one person that cooks and one person to take orders and this one person also serves the tables.

Today it was hot…like 100 degrees F….The wait to the window is painfully slow even if you aren’t too far in line. We were around 6th in line and we waited a good twenty minutes to get to the window.

We ordered a bananas foster crepe to share. We paid, tipped and sat ourselves. We were told that it would be around ten minutes.

We waited thirty minutes and never got our crepe. (bahhhh!) My husband tried to find out what happened but couldn’t push threw the tight packed tiny line of people so we just left. (*******As a slight update I’ve just been contacted by someone from the bakery and she wants to make things right).

Then we drove to Cottonwood.

First stop was Merkin Tasting room and Osteria.

Merkin offers plenty of tasting and eating options. They also make fresh pastas here and various lasagna cupcakes.

We did the red wine tasting.

It was a nice start. They all seemed like lighter red wines…Nice to start out like that.

Next we did lunch at the Tavern Grille across the street.

It was packed already. We were lucky to get a seat.

I got an ahi tuna salad.

My husband got the stuffed meatloaf (ham & cheese) and it came with a bowl of hardy chili. All was ok.

Next was Arizona Stronghold for wine tasting.

We shared red flight A.

I thought these wine had quality and character to them. I thought they all were good but some did have more bells and whistles than others.

We also stopped at Pillsbury Tasting room.

Pillsbury makes good wines…a few of the red wines were as rich as some California wines.

Then we had dinner at The Hudson in Sedona.

I made my reservation more than a month in advance and all the patio tables were already booked so I could only get a table inside.

Beautiful mountain views here.

We shared a HOUSE SMOKED salmon bruschetta with pesto cream cheese…(This was really good!)

My husband had a mushroom (ground in house) burger. (it was a little dry).

I had a south west salmon Caesar salad.

The tortilla strips made it southwest. It was thoughtful to put cheese cloth on the lemon to prevent seeds from squirting out. I thought that was a nice touch. I’m not sure why my southwest salad had a lavosh cracker but it was tasty…….I didn’t expect this since the appetizer was so good but……My salmon tasted fishy so they took it off our bill.

The next day we spent some time downtown at various places.

Lunch was at a place located by a small airport called Mesa Grille that is actually built on a mountain masa…(not from Bobby Flay).

You have to go up a steep mountain for a short distance to get there.

You have great views here and you might see a small plane or two take off.

The food at Mesa Grille is NOT TYPICAL airport food. What we tried was surprisingly detailed, interesting and delicious.

We tried the crispy skin cornmeal crusted red trout with spinach, green chili cheese grits, caper butter sauce, crispy vegetable salad, grilled lemon, and crispy trout skin chicharron.

Our other dish was blackened salmon asada with red bell peppers, onions, pico de gallo, guacamole, borracho beans, grilled street corn and hand made tortillas.

Mesa Grille in Sedona was a really great stop! Both plates were really great!

Next we tried a few wineries in Cottonwood. Javelina Leap and Page Springs.

Javelina Leap offers a style of wine that isn’t my style…It’s not bad wine…Obviously it’s award wining wine…Just not my taste.

I forgot to take photos at Page Springs. I have to say that they make very good wine. I haven’t tried all the wineries out here but I have to say for me Page Springs was in the top two that I tried.

An unexpected thing had happened. I planed my trip about 6 weeks back and tonight’s dinner reservation was for Elote Cafe. It’s a good thing we stopped back at the hotel…Because I saw this on my computer from opentable that Elote Cafe cancelled my reservation. I am surprised that they didn’t call me to inform me. I was out all day and don’t carry my computer with me.

OMG! did I panic because I made my reservations SIX weeks back and had a lot of trouble. I couldn’t get a reservation on any patio anywhere I wanted and I couldn’t get a reservation for Mariposa Latin Grill………..

The first place I try to get a reservation for was Mariposa Latin Grill. The only reservation left was for 4:pm at the bar so I took it. Some sort of divine intervention happened. When we got to a front desk person my husband asked if they had a cancellation and asked if any table was available. They didn’t tell us and sat us in a great open dining area with amazing views. We also had the most FANTABULOUS Dinner. I will have to write about it after this. (It was only a few minutes after 4pm……during the week……..the dining room filled up quickly after I took photos.

That was what I ate and wine tasted around Sedona Arizona.