The Grandest of Canyons

We got up on Friday morning (this is Friday the 6th, for those of you who have lost track of the days), ate breakfast at the hotel, stopped at Target for snacks and new shoes for Spencer and then hit the road. 

Oh, Elliott was cute when we woke up that morning. 

It took about 90 minutes to get from Flagstaff to the Grand Canyon.  We had banned kids from devices and screens that day, so we had a lively conversation on the way there. 

The Grand Canyon is PACKED in the summer, so we had to drive by the first six parking lots before we could find a place to park.  The Canyon is 277 miles long and we probably drove by about five of them. 

We parked, walked up a little hill and:

We took in the sights and then went into a little museum to learn about how the Grand Canyon was made. 

The plan was to hike down into the Canyon on a three mile round-trip trail, but it became apparent on the very short walk to the trail that Spencer was not going to be able to do it.  

Instead we decided we'd take 1 million pictures and then head to the Visitor Center via free bus. 

The visitor center had a cool movie played on a planet earth screen. 

We bought some souvenirs and then took the bus back to where we had started.  We hiked in the other direction on the trail and took another million pictures. 

We remembered to take Spencer's monthly pictures too.  

10 years- 10 months. 

Official 

After that we got back in the car and headed about five miles west to where the Grand Canyon Railroad stops.  I'd like to take it up there sometime. 

We saw and went into the El Tovar hotel. 

And then we went even further west where we found a food court (yes, at the Grand Canyon) and a hotel lobby for Spencer to use the nebulizer. 

At that point we were all Grand Canyoned out, so we decided to hit the road.  There was a huge backup on the road out and we couldn't figure out why.  

Oh, it was just people rubbernecking the wildlife. 

I tried to convince everyone to stop at the Flintstones Bedrock City, but it was everyone against me and I lost. 

See Dino's head?

We did stop in Williams for ice cream and a bathroom break.  We got to see the Polar Express.  Maybe we'll take it again this year. 

Elliott enjoyed his ice cream. 

We drove back to Flagstaff, Michael tried to get into bed to take a nap, I yelled at him to get his ass up and do something (anything!) and then we went to dinner. 

I got the Navajo tacos.  Cathy was surprised to learn there are different kinds of Mexican food: Baja Mexican, Sonoran Mexican, New Mexico Mexican, Tex-Mex, Navajo Mexican.  To name a few. 

And then, finally, to bed once again.  Elliott took his turn on the air mattress because God forbid my two kids share a bed.