FEELING OUR WAY AROUND FLAGSTAFF, ARIZONA

We spent a great deal of time lost in Flagstaff today, and it was all due to the Mighty Leaf.

Back in Albuquerque, at the Standard Diner, I ordered a cup of green tea. The "tea bag" was a little pouch filled with long leaves of green tea and various chips and bits of flavorings. It was delicious! The package, which I stashed in my purse, said "Mighty Leaf".

My stash of Teavana teas is severely depleted, so thought I would search out Mighty Leaf "tea pouches" here in Flagstaff. Sure enough, the Mighty Leaf website had a "location" finder and the tea is available in Flagstaff at New Frontiers Natural Foods.

Address and map in hand, off we went... and spent the next 45 minutes getting lost, detoured, and generally turned around in all directions. When we finally found the correct street, traveling in the correct direction, we were so dazzled by the high fuel prices posted at a gas station that we drove right past New Frontiers, which shares the same parking lot!

We had planned a trip to the Flagstaff Visitor Center as our second stop (which became our first), and the enthusiastic staffer drew lines, arrows and circles on our map, setting us straight. By the time we found the store and bought the tea, we had a pretty good idea of how to get around Flagstaff.

For our afternoon jaunt and the rest of our 10,000 steps, we visited one of Flagstaff's many parks and took a short hike in the tall, fragrant pines. The winds that have been blowing consistently had calmed to a breeze that played in the treetops, and sunlight dappled the trail. It felt great to be hiking a forest trail.

Flagstaff has a wealth of restaurants, including a couple of brewpubs. We like "pub grub", and the lively, casual atmosphere we usually find there. The Beaver Street Brewpub was no exception - good food and a lively ambiance that kept us entertained while we ate. This delicious pizza was Laurie's (it was smaller than it appears in this photo, really!); Odel had an equally delicious Salmon BLT.

Flagstaff is home to Northern Arizona University (which we explored rather thoroughly while we were lost) and many of the other diners appeared to be students, and students with their parents. The parents looked young, the students incredibly young! It was a fun end to our day.

High winds are forecast to return on Tuesday (the day we planned to leave Flagstaff) and Wednesday. Our drive from here to Needles, CA, is around 250 miles, about 240 miles longer than we like to drive in high winds, so we've decided to add two days to our stay here at J & H RV Park (read our review here). Maybe we'll have another night out... I wouldn't mind trying the fondue at the brewpub.