Jerome

The facade of one of many pretty buildings in Jerome.
The continental breakfast at the hotel was actually really good, most hotels will offer you a donut, orange juice and coffee but this one had all kinds of different foods, from cereal, to waffles, coffee, orange juice, apple juice, tea, all kinds of different fruits etc. etc. We ate so good that we knew that would last us until dinner time.


An example of the many structures you'll see there.

Today Jerome is a tourist destination, with many abandoned and refurbished buildings from its boom town days. Jerome has a large mining museum, presenting the town history, labor-management disputes, geological structure models, mineral samples, and equipment used in both underground and open-pit mining. The National Historic Landmark designation has assured architectural preservation in this town, a mile high on the side of Mingus Mountain.

Getting to Jerome from Sedona is easy, the drive up the hill is fun but a bit dangerous, and it has for many years been a bikers destination. The spirit room, a biker bar was packet to capacity when we got there. So we passed and looked for a less crowded place to eat.


The Spirit Room.

There are numerous bed and breakfasts in Jerome and two hotels, The Connor Hotel and The Grand Hotel. Restaurants range from hamburgers to fine dining. The two local bars, one of them Arizona's oldest family owned bar, both regularly have live music on weekends.

So, after we passed eating at The Spirit Room we kept walking and after visiting a couple stores and galleries we passed by this restaurant called "Quince" which means fifteen. We went in and were totally taken by its decor. This place was also full but not over crowded. They had pictures hanging from every wall, even the restrooms were a sight to see. And then we saw the menu, and they had items name "El Vato Loco Burrito" I knew we got in the right place. Salsa music played all the time we were there and I wondered why. The place looked "American" yet everything suggested a Latin flavor. Turns out the owner was from Bolivia but lived in Mexico. He had worked all his life as a chef until he opened his restaurant.


Quince.
The food was the best. Abby went for fish tacos while I had a burrito. To wash it down they prepared these margaritas that were ummmm, ummmm good.

In 1983, California folk-singer Kate Wolf wrote the song "Old Jerome" after visiting the town. In 1987 the town council adopted it as their official town song. This town of 400 has created a variety of events from the Halloweeen Dance to the Jerome Home Tour in May. This is the oldest yearly Home Tour in the state of Arizona.[citation needed]

Jerome is known as an art destination, with more than 30 galleries and working studios. First Saturday Art Walk began in 2006, and has become a popular monthly event. In 2007, Jerome became a sponsor of The Sedona Plein Air Festival, and hosted some of the best-known plein air painters in the country. The Old Jerome High School is home to many artists and their open studios. Artists and craftspeople display their work in an open-air art park in nice weather.

The above information borrowed from Wikipedia.

Driving back to Phoenix was a bit exhausting as a long stretch of the highway was bumper to bumper and the sad part is that nothing caused it, it was just that many people coming back from Northern Arizona. Still, as soon as we got back to my mom's we left to my sister's as she had invited us for coffee and conversation.

We had both and enjoyed it very much.



Peace!