Brian & Patty's Awesome Adventure!: Chapel of the Holy Cross

Our time here in Cottonwood is over! We are leaving tomorrow heading towards Winslow, Az. There are a few things we had not gone to that we had seen in local brochures. One was a church in Sedona called Chapel of the Holy Cross. It was built in 1956 on the hill above Sedona. Originally designed by noted architect Frank Lloyd Wright and with the intent to build in Budapest, Hungary it was aborted because of the outbreak of WWII.

Finally local rancher and sculptor Marguerite Brunswig Staude who was the driving force behind the project decided to build in her her own native region.

Chapel of the Holy Cross

The design was executed by architect August K Strotz. The chapel was built on Coconino National Forest land so the late Senator Barry Goldwater assisted Ms. Staude in obtaining a Special-Use Permit.

Chapel from the front

You enter the chapel from the rear. The parking is below. They have volunteers in golf carts giving rides up the hill.

Rear of Chapel

Here is a photo inside. They do not hold regular church services here.

Inside of Chapel

What they do have is some spectacular views of the Red Rocks of Sedona!

Red Rocks of Sedona

On Sunday we attended Verde Valley Church for our 4th and final time (for this visit). It is Mothers day so of course I took Patty out for breakfast. We also went out for diner Saturday night. We have found an outstanding place to eat here. It is called Pepe's Cafe.

Pepe's Cafe

Pepe's is in an old A&W restaurant, but it is not fast food. It is a restaurant. The food is very good and the prices are ridiculously low! How low? Well every night they have specials. Friday is the fish fry special. All you can eat fish and chips (with coleslaw) for $5.99!

Saturday night is Prime Rib. The whole dinner for $7.99! Regular price meat loaf dinner is $5.49.

Breakfast specials 7 days a week between 7 and 10 AM they have 4 or 5 specials for $3.99!!! Yep less then $4.00!!! Here is what we had.

Pepe's Breakfast

Patty had:

2 Pancakes

2 Bacons (they gave her 3)

1 egg (it was 2)

I had:

Chicken fried steak

2 eggs

hash browns or country potatoes

toast

Incredible deal for great food! Plus they greet and open the door for you. They ask you multiple times if they can get you anything else, or how everything is. The second time we went, Pepe shook my hand and thanked us for returning.

I don't know how they can do it so cheap, but this is the real deal!!!

After church we went to the Clemenceau Heritage Museum. This is a local museum that is only open on Wednesdays, Saturday and Sundays. It had a lot of local history artifacts. One thing it had that Scott Blankenbiller would love is a large model trail set.

The whole Verde Valley is displayed in this model. This picture shows the screaming eagle Verde Canyon Railroad train that we rode when we were here four years ago.

Verde Canyon Railroad

The pool area is really nice here at Thousand Trails Verde Valley. Here is the pool complex with the family lodge. The lodge is the building on the right. Where the fence is to the left is where the hot tub is. I didn't get a picture of that because there was a couple in it when I took these pictures and it would have been weird to take pictures with them it it.