Grand Canyon 2011

           "The lack of power to take joy in outdoor nature is as real a misfortune as the lack of power to take joy in books."          President Theodore Roosevelt

The pool @ Caesar's Palace

                 My Husband joined me in Las Vegas on the final day of my Office’s  second visit for a conference that we liked.  This year it had been held at Caesar’s Palace.  The rooms, especially the bathrooms, and pool were magnificent.  But, I have already shared my thoughts on this city!           

            After our evening in Vegas, we headed south to the Grand Canyon, digging in for the long ride.  I had been once before, thirty years ago, pregnant with my first Baby! 

In homage to our White-Water Rafting Friends..

                This was a major Bucket List dream for my Husband, so we were pretty excited.  Around mid-day I recommended we stop for a bite to eat.  We pulled off the highway in Seligman and immediately faced a sign saying “the home of Historic Route 66”!  We found a cute Mom & Pop place, the Copper Cart Café, with extremely friendly people.  (The Road Kill Cafe was too crowded.)  While eating, my Husband announced that driving Rt 66 was another bucket list item.  Two in one trip, jackpot! (one we hadn’t hit in Vegas).  What was amazing to me was that when we got back into the car “Lilly” (our GPS), announced we were now on historic Rt 66! (She's amazing.) 

                Late day, we finally passed through the gates of Grand Canyon National Park .  I booked this trip a year earlier as I wanted to treat us to the Lodges in the Parks.  Pulling up to EL Tovar Hotel felt a bit like going back in time.  It really has the feel of what a western hunting lodge would be.  Very comfortable, lot of wood, animal heads, nothing too fancy.  We settled into our room, and ventured out to roam around the south rim that the Hotel sits on. 

El Tovar

                Magnificent grandeur, has been exclaimed by many before me, and will be by many after.  But, those are the words that continuously come to my mind.  It truly is a gift from God and nature.  We walked for a couple of hours exploring.  (Annoyingly my asthma was really going to drive me crazy I found.)  It was chilly, but we braved it to sit on the porch of El Tovar to have our first cocktail at the Rim of the Grand Canyon.  That evening was Mother’s Day, and I had made reservations in the dining room of El Tovar for all three of our nights, so we enjoyed a lovely meal.  (The first time I’ve had Weiner schnitzel and spaetzle in years!)

Our Morning Neighbors

                The following morning we woke up to 10 deer grazing right outside our window!  As we entered the dining room for breakfast, the people in front of us asked if we had brought plenty of layers for the day.  We were dressed for hot weather.  It was snowing outside.  I then had to buy a sweatshirt in the gift shop as I was totally unprepared for snow.  We spent the day jumping on and off the park buses exploring the museums, gift shops, and most importantly, taking walks along the rim.  The snow continued off and on all day, but thankfully didn’t accumulate too much.  My expensive gift shop sweatshirt had already paid for itself.  Late that afternoon as we were back on the Rim near the El Tovar, dark grey clouds rose above us so we headed back to the hotel.  The sky opened up to hail the size of golf balls! (I hadn’t seen that since living in Colorado more than thirty years ago.)  I cancelled our dinner reservations in the dining room, and we had a lovely light dinner in the bar which empties nicely of the day trippers after sundown. 

The second day I booked an all day excursion with a Jeep Tour company .  We were picked up @ 7:30 a.m., by our Guide for the day and he made me look like I never opened my mouth.  We were very grateful when another couple climbed into the van so we didn’t have to appear to listen the whole day.  We joined the larger group in Williams and off we went to first explore Grand Canyon Caverns.  On the road there we discovered that, Seligman was also the inspiration for the Disney movie “Cars”!  We had driven right by the small shop where the “Cars” lived and not even noticed! (Amazing the things you look right at and don’t see until they’re pointed out to you…)..The Caverns were very cool (but I found myself scarily having a hard time breathing), and enterprisingly, there is a hotel room built into these caverns, for $700 a night. 

Then off to the bottom of the Grand Canyon on the only road in.  Unfortunately, the weather was not cooperating so we weren’t able to swim in the Colorado River.  The coolest part of the day was meeting the resident mules who look forward to their daily treats of apples from the guides.  Truth be told I would not do this tour again.  It was a great, long day, but for us not worth the $.  It was expensive.   That night for dinner, I again cancelled our reservations in the dining room, and we went next door to the Bright Angel Lodge Restaurant for dinner.  It was okay.