Holy Cow!

When Will's flight was delayed, I had to cancel our hotel reservations in Flagstaff for our scheduled trip to the Grand Canyon. (We were scheduled to head up there the day he was supposed to come home.)

This worked out alright, although Rhayn was out of school more than we wanted her to be. I knew she would want to be home with Daddy as much as possible. So she spent the first three days he was home with him. It was the week of parent-teacher conferences anyway, so she missed a few half days.

We decided that we would head up to Flagstaff after school on Wednesday, February 25th. I found someone who was willing to watch Ms. Lily so we took her over there midday. The trip up was uneventful. We stopped at Cordes Junction to use the restroom and have an early dinner at McDonald's. Neither Will nor I had printed off a map to the hotel. We knew it was near Flagstaff, to the south just a little, but we had no idea which exit to take. We ended up purchasing a map to find our way.

The truck was quite cold.

The hotel was decent. The only problem was that the water would not get hot, and the tub took forever to drain. All in all, the room was bigger than the hotel we had stayed at in San Diego. The hotel didn't offer breakfast, which meant we had to go out for breakfast. We had breakfast at Denny's where the girls ate "alien pancakes" and orange juice. Gwennie was so excited and kept pointing out the snow! over there! and more! over there! It was quite chilly. The truck told us it was 24 when we had left the hotel at a little after 7.

We took the western route to the Grand Canyon. The drive was nice, so much snow up through the San Fransisco Peaks area. We all kept our eyes out for wildlife but didn't see much, only a man cross country skiing.

Snow in the canyon.

When we parked at the canyon, Rhayn and I got out and walked out to see. Will helped Gwennie put on a jacket and it took him a few minutes to walk over. Rhayn and I had both been before, although it was more beautiful with the snow on the ground. The snow was only in the shady areas, having mostly melted in the sun.

Will and Gwennie pause for a picture.

We drove into the Grand Canyon Village area, and stopped for lunch at the restaurant in the Bright Angel Lodge. I was feeling rather gassy, and bloated. That made the entire day rather uncomfortable, sometimes you just have to deal with discomfort in life. I did take many unproductive trips to the restrooms.

A friend (the same one who was watching our dog) had told us that if we wanted to hike a little the Bright Angel trail was a good wide one to walk down with kids, so we hiked it a little ways. Lets just say that icy trails where one side goes pretty much straight down into a canyon are scary things. Will carried Gwennie because she was wearing cowboy boots and he didn't want her to slip and fall. Mule manure made it less slick, and although normally one attempts to avoid stepping in poop, we tried to step in as much as we could. (That is why the trail looks brownish- mud and manure.)

Will carrying Gwennie on the Bright Angel Trail.

After our hike we drove around the park for a while, looking at the views. We saw four large elk grazing by the side of the road, and I saw a nice winter furred coyote walking along the road. We arrived at the Watchtower and as usual, I didn't not climb to the top. I can not help it, I am scared of heights, and it is quite often debilitating. I know that it is ridiculous, about as silly as my fear of mirrors in the dark. I can deal with it most of the time, there are just some situations that I can not handle (like the freaky mirror in Hairball's childhood bedroom, shudder.)

Gwennie and I look out.

It was getting late and we decided it was time to leave the canyon. We drove out of the park, thus completing the loop and made our way back to Flagstaff for dinner. We wandered around the down town area of Flag, trying to decide what we wanted to eat. Gwennie kept her eyes out looking for dogs to pet. She always asks the owners nicely "Can I pet your dog?" first. Dinner was decent, we all slurped up hot miso soup.

For breakfast the next morning we went to McDonald's (I know, twice in one trip, yuck.) We recently purchased a membership to the Arizona Science Center and it gives discounts at Lowell Observatory. We wanted to take the girls there, and drove up to it, only to discover that it doesn't open until noon. Instead we played in the snow at a park for a bit before heading back to the valley and the warmth.

The girls riding a dinosaur in the snow.

In case you wonder why the title is "Holy cow!" It was Rhayn's exclamation about everything. The snow? "Holy cow!" The Grand Canyon? "Holy cow!" I think she said it about fifty time over the course of the two days. Will said that she must be in India, where there really are a lot of holy cows.