There's a new, great little restaurant right on the airport Mesa.

Enjoy!

i just returned from Maui and the Big Island with my 16 year old daughter. We had a wonderful time.

I haven't been to that one, but it's pretty close to the volcano fields. If I make it out that way I'll be sure to stop there.

edit: It looks like that airport also has a motel right on the field with great views.

My plans are starting to come together. My daughter wants to spend a few days at Lake Powell, so I'm going to spend the night in Albuquerque enroute. For anything west of ABQ in the summer I like to take off at dawn and be done flying by noon. We'll have dinner on the top of Sandia peak just before sunset and watch the sun go down from there. After a few days at Lake Powell we'll fly south and check out Meteor Crater and the volcano fields. Sedona looks like a great place to stop after that. I like the idea of staying right on the airfield as it solves the problem of getting back and forth and will allow us to get an early start. From Sedona, it's about 5-6 hours flying time to get back home at Skylane speed.

I called the hotel and for the weekend, they require a 2 night stay minimum. Since we only had one night to spare, we wound up spending the night in Flagstaff instead. I still want to stay at that hotel sometime. I think the next time I take my plane to California, I might spend the night there if it's during the week.

few things beat daddy daughter time, imo

At nearly 16, my daughter just doesn't have much time for dad anymore, even though we both enjoy our time together.

she will not only cherish this time with you, but she'll be chatting this trip up a storm to her friends.

Additionally both of you will hold dear this special time you spent together.

We go camping on the weekends with and without mom fairly often. It's just that getting her away for a week or more is becoming increasingly difficult and once she gets her drivers license I figure it will be just about impossible. It was the same way with my son.

My daughter is nine now and just adores her daddy. They flew to the East Coast for a family bar mitzvah while I stayed home with the baby, and they often go to movies and bike ride together. I hope they stay close as you and your daughter have.

Someday both my kids will be out of the house (one already is mostly), and I will miss even the bad days with them.

If you keep things in perspective, there are no bad days.

I'm one of the attachment parenting wackos and I stay home so I've got that covered - I adore my kids. I try hard to make sure they both get quality time with my husband though, too, because he works long hours. I love it when he takes them places on the weekend.

one is now 30 and the other is 22. Both went through the same phase right around 15-17 or so. We have always had a very good, strong relationship but there was a 'distancing" time around that age. Absolutely normal, if a bit sad for parents.

Hang in there; she'll come back around.

So I've been through it before. It seems like the farther along they go as a teenager, the less they want to do with you, then when they are in their early 20's they start to miss you again. Still it is a sad time.

Our first stop was Albuquerque, NM. It was a 4 hour plane trip from Dallas. We took the 20 minute tram ride to Sandia peak, had dinner, and watched the sun go down on the city. It was 45 degrees on top of the mountain. Luckily we had jackets and long pants because the wind was fairly strong.

The next morning we flew to Page, AZ. On the way we flew over Shiprock, Monument Valley, and flew over about 50 miles of Lake Powell (I think the lake is something like 200 miles long). While in Page we took an extended tour of Antelope Canyon with our Navajo tour guide. We rented a boat and spent a day on Lake Powell, and we took a tour of the Glen Canyon dam (only 16' shorter than the Hoover dam).

After leaving Page we took a scenic flight over the dam, horseshoe bend, Glen Canyon, and made a few passes over the Grand Canyon. From there we headed south and flew over the cinder cone volcano field just outside of Flagstaff.

While it's certainly fun to have mom along, it had been a while since just my daughter and I went somewhere together. I'm glad we had the opportunity to do it. My daughter is a great kid and is a lot of fun to be around.