The Roaming BoomersThe Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix, Arizona
I photographed this butterfly at the Desert Botanical Garden a few years ago. We are very pleased to be visiting them again very soon. Stay tuned!
Dining at Sedona’s Fork in the Road American Bistro
One of the great joys of owning an on-line travel magazine is that occasionally we have the opportunity to explore the culinary talents of a fairly new and up-coming chef.
This was the case with our recent roaming to Sedona, Arizona as we explored Chef Alan McClean’s new Fork in the Road American Bistro.
The Fork in the Road American Bistro is a labor of love between a husband and wife:
“The Owners, Alan and Brenda McClean, are a husband and wife team. Alan is the chef and Brenda does everything else!”
Carol and I understand that arrangement very well having been in business together for over 20 years, and still happily married to boot!
Chef McClean (pictured here with Carol) is a graduate of the Scottsdale Culinary Institute, has been an Executive Chef in Sedona for a number of years, and in May of 2008 opened The Fork in the Road American Bistro.
When you walk in the door, you will notice European décor, and an eclectic menu that offers tapas as well as items such as gourmet fish and chips, shepherds pie, duck cassoulet, and even a wonderful veal schnitzel.
To begin our culinary adventure, Carol started out with the Pink Lady Apple & Arugula Salad (mint, toasted walnuts, raddichio, creme fraiche, lemon dressing), while I opted for the Fork Crab Cake (creole mustard aioli with herb salad garnish).
To be honest, I have somewhere developed a general dislike of crab cakes unless I happen to be on the east coast where the crab meat is directly out of the ocean. Otherwise, it seems to me, the crab meat has a strong, fishy taste.
However, I am greatly pleased to announce, Chef Alan’s crab cakes were most delightful, with absolutely no hint of that strong taste that I abhor.
Opakapaka Fish & Chips
For her main course, Carol went for the Fish and Chips (roasted Opakapaka, malt vinegar beurre blanc, lump crab & celery root slaw, hand cut fried potatoes). What great fun it is to have your first bite and be so pleasantly surprised. This was no ordinary fish and chips!
Veal Schnitzel
For my main course, I quickly opted for the Veal Schnitzel . Let me just say that this is with out a doubt, the best veal schnitzel I have encountered. Many times veal schnitzel is heavy, and might even be called a comfort food. This dish was light, but yet featured all the qualities that I love about a good schnitzel. Absolutely divine!
Note: please click on the photographs to see a much larger version.
With our bread, a bottle of Pinot Noir, our appetizers, and our main courses, we were both beginning to feel like we had better call it quits. We had a most delightful meal, and were ready to head back to our hotel, kick off our shoes, and start to go over our itinerary for the next day.
However, our waiter would have none of that. He insisted that we at least sample the chef’s Double Chocolate Sour Cream Pound Cake (with warm kahlua chocolate sauce). Fully understanding that we were guests of the house, and here to sample Chef Alan best, we decided that we had better take the full epicurean journey.
Carol ordered her typical decaf coffee, while I in turn went for my usual decaf double espresso, and away we launched into the most decadent chocolate experience that recent memory affords. Oh my heavens…that was GOOD!
To Chef Alan and Brenda McClean we say well, well done! We had a most wonderful dining experience, and your food deserves to be honored by all of the best cuisine rating services.
Furthermore, you should know that as we told folks around Sedona where we were dining, we received consistent, and hearty praise from the locals.
Congratulations, and thank you for a wonderful dining experience.
Oof, now let me loosen my belt! 🙂
Disclosure: this wonderful dining experience was provided by Fork in the Road American Bistro.
Behold the Power of Social Media in the Travel Industry
It is my strong belief that one of the greatest mistakes made in the travel industry, as it relates to social media, is that they bring an advertising mindset to the process.
When we begin the inquiry process for our various journeys, the first word out of the mouth of very intelligent people is: “how many hits a month does your site get?”
This tells me that they are considering our work to be merely a one shot advertisement, and that they intend to judge us on the number of folks that we can drive to their site in the immediate future.
If I may be so bold, this type of thinking is missing the whole point of social media!
Here’s a case in point.
It was nearly a month ago that we posted the video recording the highlights of our visit to The Inn of The Five Graces, in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Subsequent to our visit, the enlightened folks at The Inn of The Five Graces put our video in the press section of their website. The yellow arrow to the right shows the prominent placement of our video on their site.
As I was studying the analytics of our website today, I noticed a few very, very important statistics:
- 25 people clicked from the Five Graces press section directly to our video to learn more about the Five Graces. Why? They were looking for third party endorsement.
- Interestingly, 24 of these 25 people were from Phoenix, Arizona. An important target market for the Five Graces.
- Also, very interestingly, these 25 people spent an average of 19 minutes on our site, and viewed an average of 6.44 pages.
So what should we take away from this?
- The articles that we produce in the Internet, unlike television or print, live forever! Granted, these are not monumental numbers. But consider that a month down the road our combined efforts to create interest in the Five Graces still lives on. Television, and print would be long since dead!
- Our piece, on the Five Graces, contained text, photography, and video. Only on the Internet can you pull that off.
- The Five Graces, by putting our third party endorsement on their website, is helping to keep that particular moment in time alive. Is it possible that a year from now, 50 people each week might view this article? Not sure, but it is certainly possible.
- Consider the incredible cost savings. This type of exposure in television, or print media would cost a small fortune. Furthermore, if you don’t keep feeding the television, and/or print media monster, your investment is practically worthless. Our piece, for the Five Graces, will live on forever. Furthermore, if we notice that attention is waning, all we need do is to bring new attention to the article. Internet articles are easily resurrected from near death.
As we disclosed in our article, The Inn of The Five Graces hosted us for one night in their hotel. In return, they will experience many eyeballs over the coming years watching the video of our wonderful third party experience.
If you calculate the ROI of even one person making a stay at their Inn it looks pretty good. I am, however, convinced that our joint social media efforts over the years will bring them many new raving fans of their property, and their subsequent ROI will be stratospheric.
Therein lies the power of social media for the travel industry!
Phoenix, Arizona’s new Musical Instrument Museum
Coming Up: we will share with you about our visit to Phoenix’s new Musical Instrument Museum. A very cool place!
Hiking Sedona’s Boynton Canyon Trail
It was sunny, 50º, 9:00 in the morning, and we were staying at the fabulous Enchantment Resort in Sedona, Arizona.
When we planned our trip to Sedona, Arizona we planned to bring our hiking gear, and get out on the trails. Little did we know that the Boynton Canyon Trail lay right outside our door at the resort.
The Boynton Canyon Trail is a fairly easy, 2.5 mile trail, that will give you a nice 5 mile hike out and back.
We joined the trail out the back door of the Mii Amo Spa, and were quickly rewarded with canyon views of the entire resort.
As we meandered in and out of the morning shadows, we found ourselves on the sandy floor of the canyon heading northwesterly back into the depths of the canyon. As we continued, the sounds of modernity faded into the distance, and we began to enjoy the sounds of the songbirds, the rustling of small lizards in the leaves, the solitude of the early morning, the sounds of the wind singing through the tops of the pine trees, the growing number of oak trees the farther we journeyed, and the incredible vistas that were available in absolutely every direction.
As we were making our way down the trail, a young gal came zipping along the trail and passed us on her own trek on the glorious trail. Another 10 minutes down the trail I noticed fresh human barefoot tracks on the trail. We later smiled when we caught the same young gal hiking back, shoes in hand.
Because of our particular time constraints, we were unable to complete the entire journey, and were forced to turn back before we reached the trails end.
As we made our way back, we noticed that the trail was now becoming fairly busy with others who had likely put away their late breakfasts, and were now out enjoying this canyon trail as well.
We were no longer enjoying solitude as folks were busily chatting their way down the trail. We got many questions like: “how much farther is the trail?”
As we were approaching the resort entrance we heard a noisy Japanese couple making their way along the trail. When they approached us the woman inquired, in very broken English, “Can you feel the vortex? Oh, the vortex is making me very happy today”, as she gleefully pranced her way along the trail.
As she passed, we looked at each other, gave each other a knowing smile, and finished off the last leg of our morning hike.
The Boynton Canyon Trail should be an easy hike for any baby boomer, and is one that in our book shouldn’t be missed when coming to Sedona.
Big thumbs up!
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