Captains Log: Thursday, 24 July 2014.
11:15 a.m.Sarah has found another fun app to play with on her iPod. Youve already seen the panoramic photos. Now she has one that can combine photos fairly seamlessly. It takes a few tries, but soon were all getting a kick out of this one. Youre welcome.
11:30 a.m.Weve finally made it back to the Grand Canyon Village. As we walk past the shuttle bus stop, we note that it is now packed to the gills with tourists. Youd easily have to wait for 2-3 buses to arrive before you could board one now. Get out of bed early, folks. Its much more fun to have the canyon to yourself as you hike.
The Rim Trail is a great one for the family. For the most part, its not steep. And it is paved. There are several spots where you can stand alone at an overlook, savoring the views and that incredible stillness below, amazed at how such a vast space can be so
We get it, Dad, its really quiet, Sarah says. Ok, so maybe Ive mentioned this once or twice along the way.
Any further smart-alecky comments are drowned out by a loud rumble. We hustle up the sidewalk to get a glimpse of the arrival of the
Grand Canyon Railway train.
This train makes daily trips from the town of Williams, AZ, giving travelers a way to see the canyon for a few hours without having to worry about making arrangements to stay in the middle of nowhere. The downside is that its fairly pricy and you only get a few hours to enjoy the park.
11:35 a.m.Were standing outside the Bright Angel Lodge, enjoying the views just before lunch. Across the way is
El Tovar, the historic flagship hotel of the park. Its the most expensive place to stay inside the park grounds.
Below we can see the Bright Angel Trail descending to the canyon floor. You can see the trail here as it disappears over the edge of the canyon way down below.
11:40 a.m.Were actually doing a sit-down meal for lunch. Julie and I wanted to eat at the
Bright Angel Restaurant (theyre very original with their names at this place) and we figured we had a better chance of getting in for lunch than dinner. Its not that the food is anything truly special, but Julie and I ate here once on our honeymoon and again on our 10th anniversary trip, so its just a place with fond memories for us. After all the hiking, its good to get off our feet and recharge.
Remember what I said about the food not being memorable? I cant even remember what I ordered. Chicken strips, maybe? I know it wasnt a burger, because I try to stay away from red meat as much as possible.
12:30 p.m.After lunch, we start goofing off. At this point, weve been to just about every overlook on the South Rim. So its time for Scottys favorite part of the trip: wandering through the gift shop so he can beg us to buy stuff that will get lost or collect dust in his room.
Once we finally tear ourselves away from the useless trinkets in there, we take our time wandering through the village. Julie and I convince Sarah to take a picture of just the 2 of us. This one is my current FB picture:
12:48 p.m.We wander over to El Tovar, just to see what it looks like. Its a cool building, very rustic and historic. It gives off a vibe of the old-world elite, if they had to rough it for a day. We rest on the back porch and enjoy the swings.
1:30 p.m.Were back at the main visitor center. The kids have been diligently filling out their Junior Ranger workbooks, so were now here for the final achievement: attending another ranger talk. This one is about the California condor and the re-population program the National Park Service is running. Unfortunately, its Baby Drews nap time, and Im elected to rock him to sleep. So I dont get to listen to the park ranger. I head over to a bench near the gift shop, where I get to hear a different talk.
As I gently rock Baby Drew to sleep, an older gentleman and hiswife? Girlfriend?approach and sit on a bench near me. This manIll call him Eeyorethereupon proceeds to start moaning and complaining about his station in life, how no one in his life appreciates him, how is job is awful, he doesnt get any support, how his wife (who Im assuming is sitting there taking this) doesnt @#$%@#$ respect him, and on and on and on. With many colorful metaphors to spice up the sentences. I really want to get up and move, but the baby is stirring and Im worried about waking him up.
Eeyore goes on and on and on, and the whole time Im thinking: youre sitting near one of the great natural wonders in all of the earth. Get over yourself!
Eventually, Julie and the kids make their way over and rescue me, and the kids have shiny new Grand Canyon Junior Ranger badges pinned to their shirts. So I hope my taking one for the team there was worth it.
2:30 p.m.5:30 p.m.We do a whole lot of nothing the rest of the afternoon. We wander some gift shops. We go back to the room to unload bags and regroup. Then we head over to the
Maswik Lodge, back in the village, to get some dinner at the cafeteria there. I stick with my Italian kick and get a heaping plate of surprisingly good meat lasagna. I cant remember what everyone else had, but I know Baby Drew tried to steal Daves chicken fingers as they came out of the fryer.
6:40 p.m.We catch the shuttle at the main visitor center to head to Yaki Point. This is another overlook that is reachable by shuttle bus only. Its also a fantastic place to watch the sunset. Not only can you get some beautiful photos here, but the shuttle bus restriction means its usually less crowded than some of the other viewpoints. Unfortunately, we still have cloud cover to deal with, so we once again dont get the long shadows as the sun lights up the rocks.
Luckily, Julie and I had a camera with us in 2008, so heres what Yaki Point looked like back then:
7:27 p.m.As it is, the sun is peeking through the clouds a bit. So were hoping to get some good colors in the sky this time around.
Lewis (or is it Clark?) is back to help us orient ourselves.
Ever so briefly, the sun breaks through and starts to light up the canyon walls.
Once again, pick an adjective. Its beautiful, amazing, mesmerizing
we are fortunate to be able to stand here and witness this. Right, boys?
Uh, boys?
Sigh. I guess theyre not quite as impressed as I am. We take more pictures, trying to get good shots of the colors reflected on the clouds
and then Scotty happens.
Scotty asks to be allowed to press the shutter on the camera. Its on a long exposure to try and get different colors and shadows to show up in the photo. And thus, Scotty starts trying to photo-bomb his own picture.
He presses the shutter and then tries to jump in front of the camera before the exposure ends. He has a few false starts, but in the end, persistence pays off, and he strikes gold:
And just for good measure:
Eventually, that gets old. And so, apparently, does the sunset.
Well, at least I still have one other son who might appreciate these things. I havent screwed up Drew yet, right? What do you think of the sunset, Drew? Amazing, right?
Never mind.
Coming Up Next: So long to the Grand Canyon
but were not done with Arizona just yet.
Ok, sorry. I couldn't say that with a straight face.
F.A.R.T. has never let me down before.
No really - that picture makes me feel just dizzy enough that I feel like I could just 
