The Grand Canyon (Arizona)

The last part of our vacation, was spent at the Grand Canyon in Arizona. We left Thursday afternoon from Anaheim, California and drove as far as Williams, Arizona. The very first photo shows Max standing by a "Route 66" road sign on Friday morning. He was VERY EXCITED at this point because he was in "Lightning McQueen's" world and he was pretty sure that Williams was actually "Radiator Springs". To be honest, there really wasn't much to see in Williams. A lot of it looked old and neglected but historical because Route 66 went through there. Max was pretty sure that he spied "Flo's Cafe" at one point. Keith and I would get the biggest grins on our face and just smile at each other as he chattered away.

Even without this photo of Max beside the Route 66 sign, I think this picture and town will be etched in my memory forever. It was just after we took the photo and got back in the car, that Keith handed me his blackberry. And I read a text from my mom telling me that my uncle had passed away quite suddenly and unexpectedly earlier that morning. It's one of those situations where you will never forget where you were when you heard sad news. So thankful for technology. We were able to call my family to find out the details and my sister LeeAnne took care of arranging flights for Max and I on the spot. Even though we were on vacation, my uncle's family was never far from our thoughts and prayers during the next few days.

The Grand Canyon was about an hour drive from Williams, where we had spent the night. Words cannot describe the awe we felt as we saw the Canyon for the first time. Actually, the whole time we were there, it all seemed quite surreal. It was overwhelming. It was impossible to grasp the magnitude of it all. Coming from Vegas and Disney, we saw some HUGE buildings and beautiful amazing things. But I have to say that the Grand Canyon just blew them all away. Size wise and attraction wise, there is simply no comparison. The Canyon is unbelievably amazing. And so quiet. Peaceful. Relaxing. And quiet. A beautiful quiet.

We stayed at a hotel located in the Grand Canyon called Maswik Lodge. It wasn't upscale lodging or anything like that - pretty basic, but it was clean and neat and steps away from the Canyon Rim. Our Lodge had a cafeteria style restaurant that we ate at the first night we were there. The second night we ate at the Bright Angel Lodge Restaurant and it was awesome - we had fajita's! MMMMMMmmmm!

I was a little bit nervous about letting Max run around freely at the Canyon. I mean, you are at the top of this canyon that is a mile plus deep and in some places there are no railings, nothing guarding you from the edge and you are literally inches away from the edge. Needless to say, we kept a sharp eye and tight little hold on the little man. We did alot of walking. Saturday morning we decided to hike along the rim of the canyon and ended up walking about 5 miles along the edge. Max was a trooper. He walked the full 5 miles too. That afternoon we all had a little rest back at the hotel. The high altitude combined with the fresh air and all that walking just tuckered us all out.

One of the neat things we found throughout the park, were these little plaques with a different Bible verse on each one. I included a photo of one of them (with Keith and Max) which reads "All the earth worships thee; they sing praises to thy name. Psalm 66:4". How cool is that?! We thought that it was awesome to be scripturally reminded of God's greatness in a National Park. :-)

Did you notice that we saw Lightning McQueen at the Canyon? Looks like he really exists in real life too! LOL!! We couldn't resist taking a few pics of him with the canyon in the background. We got lots of smiles from people passing by when they caught on what we were doing. (I'm sure they just wished they would have thought of it!)

The Canyon has a Junior Ranger program they offer at the El Tovar Hotel at 1:00pm each day. Saturday afternoon we took Max over to check it out. He had so much fun. All the parents hung out and watched from a distance as a Park Ranger spent an hour with them. By the end of the hour, they had learned all about National Parks and Forests, played some games, listened to some stories and taken a pledge to become "Junior Park Rangers". They received an "official" certificate as well as a little badge to wear. Max was the youngest and he just loved it. His most favourite animal he learned about was a Gila Monster (pronounced heel-a-monster). It's a venomous lizard. Keith and I think that he just likes saying the name! Needless to say, the Gila Monster is a popular animal around our house nowadays. Later on after the Junior Ranger program was over we were walking along when we met up with the Ranger. He recognized Max right away and took the time to point out a Condor to him. It was perched quite a distance away on a outcropping of canyon rocks. I don't know that we would have ever spied it ourselves. We thought it was really nice and thoughtful of him to stop and take the time to point it out to Max.

We left the Grand Canyon early on Sunday morning and headed back to Las Vegas to catch our flight back to Vancouver. And when I say early, I mean EARLY! Why? Well it was a confusing morning. It was the weekend of the time change. Plus, we were dealing with different time zones between Arizona and Nevada. Plus, Arizona doesn't do the time change at all. So it was all getting quite confusing when we were setting our alarm clock the night before. The next morning when I was getting ready (at 5:00am so that we could be on the road by 6:00am) Keith sheepishly came over to me and said "Aw, Honey....I think I made a mistake....it's only 4:00am." Well, by that time I was good and awake and we were more than a bit confused by all the time changes so we just decided to hit the road anyway. We both decided that it was better to get there early than late and miss our flight!