Grand Canyon Nov 06

Success at Last!

We had a whirlwind weekend with my brother in Phoenix and area. We flew over on Thanksgiving morning. The flight took 50 minutes. Man that sure beats the close to 7 hours we would have spent driving there.

We were picked us up at the airport in a Jeep. That was cool.We didn't have the top on so it was like riding in a convertible. We drove the long way home so we could see a bit of the city. We finally made it and were glad we had arrived.

My brother's house is really nice. He has done such nice things to it. The backyard has gone from being rather empty and dull to a paradise. He built a nice water fountain, brought in cactus and built up flower beds and planted grass. It really is pleasant sitting out there. A hummingbird hovered around us the whole time we were there.

For Thanksgiving dinner we had it all.My brother cooked a turkey to perfection unlike my experience last year. My niece made green bean, cream of mushroom soup & dried onion casserole. We also had mashed potatoes & gravy, stuffing, cranberries and dinner roles. Pecan pie was for dessert. No one left the table hungry. It was a feast.

The rest of the day was spent catching up and planning the rest of our visit.

On Friday morning we prepared the Jeep and took off for the Grand Canyon. We stopped along the way at Montezuma's Castle (cliff dwelling) and had lunch in Sedona. Road construction plus Thanksgiving crowds meant that the trip through Sedona was really not pleasant. It dragged on & on. We arrived at the entrance to the Canyon close to sunset. We thought we would be able to drive right in but think again. We weren't the only ones with that thought in mind. The line of cars waiting to get in to see the sunset was looooong! We crawled along all the while watching the sun setting lower & lower. We were sure that the one ranger on duty was spending much to much time greeting everyone entering the park. We were sure he was inviting everyone to a lecture on the squirrels in the canyon. Actually there were multiple rangers & ours didn't mention squirrels once. We broke free from the crowds & sprinted (in the Jeep) to the first lookout point. There were hundreds of folks already there which made parking a nightmare. My brother graciously dropped us off & went to park while we got our first glance. IT WAS AWESOME!

The reason I started off saying SUCCESS AT LAST is because when I was last at the canyon it was snowing so I saw very little.

Once the sun had set we moseyed (is that how you spell that) back & checked into our hotel, went across the street for a steak and then settled in for the night.

The next morning began at 6am. We threw on some clothes and drove back to the canyon. This time we were some of only a handful of folks. We parked & waited for sunrise which was to be at 7:15 am. More & more people arrived in preparation for the viewing so we got out and readied ourselves. Boy was it cold. We could see our breath but after our extremities adjusted (think froze) it was okay. First a sliver of light was visible but slowly the cliffs turned golden.

What more can I say. We took picture upon picture until we had enough. Then we went and had breakfast & went to the gift shop. After that we drove back to my brother's place, had some pie, rested & finally went to the airport. The rest of the trip went as planned & we were back home with our cats in our own bed by 10:00 pm.

I hope all of you had a great Thanksgiving.

Scott