Wednesday and Thursday were the Grand Canyon experience. We (my parents and I) drove up on Wednesday and stayed the night at a lodge in the park which is *definitely* the right call if you ask me. The canyon is, as advertised, amazing, though I liken the experience of seeing it the throngs of people to the worst of the worst museum commentary experiences. "The colors; the play of light and shadow!" they exclaimed for the millionth time. I spent the bulk of my viewing time pondering the meaning of the term "reverence" and wondering whether Thoreau and Whitman exclaimed inanities at nature all the time, too.
I'm such a critic. Seriously, though, it was Spring Break, and the people were out in droves and exercising no self-censorship. Letting that go, the views were fantastic, and I got tons of photos (see below). We also had the pleasure of hearing a national parks ranger talk about going into the Canyon off-trail and the different precautions he takes to, you know, avoid death. He told us a great story about a pair of lost hikers and other ones about annoying, food-stealing ravens. Great stuff, and BEST OF ALL, he taught me how to tie my shoes to avoid "canyon toe" (no, that's something different) which hopefully means I'll be breaking my toenails less often. (Two days too late, actually, as I broke them Monday night).
I've spent the last five minutes trying to decide which pictures to post, and it's pretty impossible. So just check out a slideshow and enjoy this pair of enticing shots to whet your appetite with, you know, colors and light and shadow:
That first one is from sunset Wednesday; we failed to get up for the Thursday sunrise, so the second is a midmorning shot. Beck insisted that you can't get a feel for it via pictures, and she's of course right. I think you also can't really get a feel for it until you go down into it. Standing on the rim still gives you the vague impression that you're seeing something on TV, and the brown L.A. haze doesn't help matters.
We slept in on Thursday as mentioned; my dad and I grabbed a free, powdered egg style breakfast, and the three of us took a bus tour to catch all the views. In lieu of lunch, we hit the general store on the way out for some road snacks where I spotted this:
It's pretty low on the universe's list of cosmic coincidences, but Cactus Candy is a shut down shop on a street I drive down in Sunny Azz Phoenix every day - seems at one point they actually did make a product. Who knew? Anyways, lots of good pretzel and light fare treats for the road trip home, and I'd say we did quite a good job eating well for being restricted to highway fare.
After spending the day site-seeing and visiting a couple of artists studios that overhung the rim, we made the drive back home without incident. I had the unfortunate job of grading undergrad exams all spring break (I think I mentioned this earlier), and I spent most of the trip home head down, red-inking. Less than fun. We got back to SA at roughly five and made some turkey burgers for Beck's arrival home from work. Delicious times, and we capped off the day of glorious natural wonders by watching Iron Man, which was entertaining if silly.
On Wednesday morning, I took Mike NTPB back to the airport so he could head on to California. Great visit with the Miguel which I will detail reverse time style in the upcoming posts. Came back to pack and head off to the Grand Canyon, and like I said, probably not going to do it justice with words and pics - we had a good time, though the place was overrun with stereotypical middle class overweight tourists who spouted nonsense with a vengeance. maybe headphones are in order next time...
Alright, TBC with Tuesday in a few.
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