Rock 'n' Roll Quiz

Cross-Country Trip, Day 4

Sedona, Day 2

We started our first (and last) full day in Sedona with a 3.7 mile hike.  There are lots of hiking trails to choose from and we picked the one right outside our back door.   The trail was narrow, the earth red and the views spectacular.

The earth and rocks here are a beautiful deep red from the iron oxide and they produce a deep feeling of happiness.  Oh, sorry, no, that was the ice cream.  (Kidding.  I don't eat ice cream anymore.) 

After the walk, we made our way into town and wandered around Tlaquepaque, a little shopping village with archways, stone streets, and plazas that are reminiscent of old Europe.  

We meandered into the art galleries and gift shops to admire beautiful sculptures of bronze, wood and clay, most of which I didn't photograph because (a) it wasn't allowed and (b) I was too busy looking at it.   Here's one I managed to get:

Native Women in Clay

I don't how these wonderful artists pay the rent because I didn't see anyone buying anything except in the gift shops selling practical items like these signs.

We ended up at the Amitabha Stupa and Peace Park where Buddhist monks were chanting and conducting evening prayers, and Marina decided to build her own mini-stupa.

She became obsessed and couldn't stop building them and every time I turned around, she was building another one.   

One of Marina's many stupas

 
Our final stop of the day was the ChocolaTree for a cup of the nano-green tea and some more cardamom rose chocolate.  The silver-haired man behind the register recognized us from the previous night.  He poured the tea and put the tiny little cardamom rose chocolates in a waxed bag.  He offered us a free chocolate if we could guess the name of the band playing the song on the radio.  It was a familiar one from the '60s, used in a lot of movies.

"I'll give you a hint," he said.  It's the only rock and roll band with the same name as a chocolate."  Hershey's?  Mars?  M&M?  Milky Way?

The song continued, we sang the chorus ("me and you and you and me, no matter how they toss the dice, it had to be, the only one for me is you and you for me, so happy together, so happy together, how is the weather, so happy together") and still the name wouldn't come.

"They had a lot of hits after this," the man said.  We went through every '60s band we could think of: the Monkees, the Mamas and the Papas, the Carpenters, but none of them were chocolates.

He put another piece of chocolate on the counter.  It was the same size and shape as a Reese's peanut butter cup but made, he said, from the "finest cacao in the world."  The only ingredients were cacao, almonds and agave.  We decided to take two, and they sat on the counter waiting for us to guess the band's name.  Finally, we gave up.

"The Turtles," he said.

The Turtles?  We would have been there all night.

Then another classic rock'n'roll song started playing, and he said, "I like you guys so I'm going to give you another chance."

"Pink Floyd," I said.

"No, it's the Rolling Stones," Marina said.

"Correct," the man said.  "But name the drummer."

"Brian Jones," Marina said.  "He was one of the original members."

"Yes, but he wasn't the drummer."

"Let's see, there were three original members," Marina said.  "Mick, Keith and Brian.  Who was the fourth?"

"No idea," I said.

A line had started to form and he helped the customer behind us.  When he disappeared behind a back counter, Marina turned to me and said, "Quick, look it up on your phone."

"I'm not doing that! That's cheating!  Plus what if he comes back and sees me doing it?"  Two seconds later, the man reappeared.

"Bill!  It's Bill something," Marina said.  "His last name starts with W.  Bill Wyman."

The man behind the counter smiled knowingly.  I started to wonder if there was some sort of spiritual meaning to this exercise or whether this was the way white people bonded.  We were still standing at the counter with the chocolate in front of us and I just wanted us to pay for it and leave.

"You're on the right track," he said.  "It starts with W."

"White.  Wyeth. Wightman. Wyatt."

"How much is the chocolate?  Can you just ring us up?"  I said.

"You're getting confused by the first name. It's not Bill."

"It's not?  It's not Bill Wyatt?"

The man dispensed various liquids into a blender for the customers behind us.  "I'm going to give it to you because you're so close.  It's Charlie Watts."

"That's close to Bill Wyatt?" I said.

He shrugged, rang up $3 for one of the cacao cups and gave us the other for free.  That's right.  $3 for a chocolate the size of a single Reese's cup.  The chocolate was strong and bitter, and I'm glad we only had to pay for one.  

As we got into the truck, Marina said, "What does turtle have to do with chocolate?"

Sunset in Sedona

Mural outside ChocolaTree