Grand Canyon

I forgot to say that when we were on our way to Sedona I had booked a hotel online.  It said that we were 1 mile from the Sedona Library (downtown).  So we pull up to the address and we are 50 miles from Sedona!  Lucas calls the reservation place and the first guy checks his computer--YEP there is a flaw--so while it shows you are booking a hotel in Sedona, you are actually not.  

He has to transfer the call to a manager.  

The manager is a jerk and won't refund the money--Finally after the manager calls the hotel manger (while Lucas sits there and watches) and get permission from to refund the money.

Finally we are on our way--  to Sedona.  

(I did the Sedona pictures in another Blog Post)

We left Sedona later that night and headed it to Grand Canyon.  The truck has been having a few problems with shifting so we stop at a place on the way to stay the night.  Lucas, being the master mechanic that he is, fixes the problem the next morning in the hotel parking lot and away we go!

Lucas had no clue how huge the Grand Canyon is, and thought we would see it all in a few hours--well a whole day later and we were worn out!  

When you first arrive you park at this huge parking lot and walk to the visitors center.  They have a whole bunch of buses you can take to different locations, a educational video, and guides to help you.

We decided to walk and take the "trail" around.  The trail is a pavement that walks you around the rim of the Grand Canyon.

We were going to catch another bus, but somehow got on a different trail and miles later we found were we wanted to be.  We did a LOT of walking this day.

We found the trail that takes you down into the canyon, but by the time we started  it was late and we didn't even make it very far.

Since Lucas carried Wheeler the whole time, Lucas wanted Wheeler to carry him for a while.

  Wheeler didn't agree!

Giving some hugs to Sedona while taking a break!

It really is an amazing thing to see!

All of our family pictures in the last year have been of us hiking.

A small cave through the mountain you have to go through to go down into the canyon. 

While we had dinner in a food court (which I am so glad we did because we thought we would just grab something on the way out---keep reading)  we met a really neat group of people.  I want to say it was four families with lots of kids (older).  Come to find out they were LDS and we starting talking to them....if anyone knows Bryan Campbell of Globe Arizona--tell his wife that my facebook page is amy m. whitaker-larson. ( I forgot the 'm' when I told her).  '


We left Grand Canyon around 9:00--I think that is when they "close" the Grand Canyon, and we were going to just drive to the next town and find a hotel.  Around 9:15 we get pulled over cause the cop can't see our temp. licence plate, which is clearly in the window.  He was mostly polite and lets us go about 15 minutes later after checking Lucas's drivers licence.

So it is late, we are tired and by the time we find a town that has a hotel we (mostly Lucas) decide that it is crazy to spend much for a hotel room we won't even use for 8 hours, plus the kids are already asleep) so we just go ahead and drive to Mesa Verde......

To be Continued!