We arrived at the canyon around 9:00 AM, as we rolled through the access we were surprised with a free pass, apparently Father's Day is a free National Park day, so we saved $25 right away. We started at the south rim and I quickly realized that we were going to be doing a lot of walking and hiking. Well, by a lot I mean more than I had anticipated. It was a beautiful day, mid 70's, slight breeze in most spots, one of the ledges had a horrible current and the wind was strong enough to knock you right off the side. At one point the wind caused Summer to lose her balance and she did fall over, but not hard enough to get hurt. We spent about 4 hours at the Grand Canyon, we had lunch at one of the cafe's in the park and by around 1:00 Summer was in desperate need of a nap and we had had enough sun, wind, and cool views to call it a day. I don't recommend anyone making the drive from Vegas in one day, it was a really long day but we were in good spirits and the trip was still enjoyable. We had breakfast at McDonalds on the way going, McDonalds is such a travel icon, and we stopped at McDonalds again on the way back for a treat.
This photo was taken as we were headed back to the car to begin our journey home. Summer is only smiling because she was delirious and exhausted. She actually walked and ran most of the time, she really enjoyed walking on the rocks and through the trees, more than I realized. I think if I was to ask her if she wanted to go hiking she would most definitely say yes and grab her monkey. We kept her monkey on to keep things safe, do you realize how easy it would be to fall off the side?
I love this photo because it was right after we arrived, Summer loves the dirt and the rocks and apparently likes wiping her hands on her face after touching the dirt and rocks. I thought her face was so cute so I didn't bother wiping it off, well I did eventually, just not right away, besides, she would probably just get it dirty again anyway.
Papa was really not enjoying the day. We were higher up in elevation and it was harder to breath, luckily Kris and I had been working out for the past two months or we probably would have been suffering from the short walks as well. I also think Cliff was a little worried about the edges and Summer falling. Even though we were good about keeping her away from the edges these kids are fast and you can't help to worry, but I think he enjoyed seeing the Canyon and spending time with us.
He, however, was not a big fan of the car ride, I think he would have preferred we stay somewhere and get a room. I rode in the back seat with Summer on the way there and 1/2 the ride back but he got the last part of the trip and had to help keep Summer occupied. Speaking of car rides I have a new weapon to help with what I call the beginning of turning 2, the precursor to what is to come, the annoying part that we are already experiencing, you may know it better as simple whining! Suckers - I find that small dumb dumbs, while crazy messy, are a great way to calm down a whining toddler. I don't understand the whining I mean she has a great communication system going, we understand most everything she says, she can get her point across, yet the whining continues almost daily now.
I hate to resort to candy, I thought about trying celery or carrots but I just don't think it will have the same effect. I think the photo of Summer and Daddy sitting out on the canyon edge is one of my favorites, this was towards the end of the trip, we were just hanging out because we knew we were about to leave, Summer was happy to sit and play in the rocks and dirt and she had such a great view, yet somehow I don't think she really appreciated it yet.
Lucky for her I take so many photos so she will be able to look back and see what a great trip we took when she was little and think what cool parents she has, parent's that do all kinds of cool things, like go to the Grand Canyon in a day just for her. Maybe not just for her, but we took her and she had a great time walking around and seeing new things, getting outside for the day - which reminds me to mention, yes we used sunscreen, actually Summer and I did, Kris and Cliff chose to get a nice sunburn instead, I guess it intensified the experience more for them. No sunburns on this mom or baby! It wasn't a bad burn really, they just got a little red.
So as we were driving home we were making great time, figured we would surely be home by 6 at the latest and all of a sudden, the traffic stopped! The Hoover Damn is such a pain, I am so glad they are adding the new bridge. Since we were going a whopping 5 mph through the Hoover Damn area we decided to stop and get out and stretch our legs, afterall we had been driving for 5 hours already. I snapped a few thousand pictures, of course, but liked this one of Cliff and Summer.
I am not exactly sure what Summer was trying to do, maybe she was counting because she holds her hands out when she counts, or she was trying to make us magically appear at home, wait that is what I was trying to do! Anyway the water in Lake Mead was so blue and pretty, why have we never gone to the lake to hang out, the lake is only 30 minutes away. I am going to find out how much it costs to rent a boat and try to do that this summer, I want to go every summer but I mean it this time! Well maybe, we have only so many weekends and we want to get to the ocean too. One last photo to make you go ooooh and awwww, or not, I am not impressed by massively huge manmade structures, like damns and bridges, but some people are so here you people go - this is a photo of the new road/bridge thing they are building, the bridge that should eliminate that hour delay we had to endure, the bridge that probably costs millions of dollars. This picture does not do it justice, it is humongous, large, and it looks to me like it would be very heavy, especially if it fell! I don't know how long it is suppose to take but it looks like it is almost together, just one more piece in the middle and it should be close. Amazes me how people can build something so ... large!
We had a great trip, we will never do it again, especially in one day, but it was a nice thing to do on an otherwise boring Father's Day. I don't know if Kris and Cliff felt special but they were at least exhausted, sun and wind burnt and they both slept well on Sunday night. As for me, I am going to make sure we do something really cool next Mother's Day. I don't know what I want to do yet but it won't be another quick trip to the park like last time! As always, thanks for reading.
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