Family Vacation, Part 9 - Grand Canyon

Okay, so it's like this. The Grand Canyon wasn't ACTUALLY on our to do list. It had always been on the maybe list, but really just as an afterthought. James and I just couldn't seem to remember whether we'd taken the kids there are not. We know that we've been there twice together (once on our only all-alone vacation when Katie & Joe were tiny) and... some other time, but we couldn't remember when or why--or if the kids were with us or not. None of them remember it at all and insisted they hadn't been there. We struggled over it for the longest time. To go, or not to go??? We were sooooo ready to be HOME. And everybody was sort of on vacation overload. After you've seen SOOOOOOO MANY amazing sights it gets sort of overwhelming and it's like you can't truly appreciate the next wowing thing as much as you would had you not already just seen so many spectacular things, you know?! Ha! BUT... what if the kids never, ever make it back to that area and never ever get to see the Grand Canyon??? I mean, it's the Grand Canyon!!! How can you be driving past, just an hour away, and not take your kids to see it?

Obviously, the latter reasoning won out against the wanna-be-home/trip-overload argument. Of course, as we were driving through the little town just before you enter the park we saw a motel and thought, "Hey, we stayed there. Were the kids with us there???" Then we saw a restaurant and thought, "I remember eating there. And the kids WERE with us--I remember telling 'em to sit down and be quiet, for goodness' sake!" Ha! Then I was a little irritated to think we'd gone an hour out of our way (adding 2-3 hours to the trip total) to take the kids someplace they'd already been before. Ha! Of course, we apparently don't have any pictures of their first trip there and they were all obviously way too young to remember it. So this is the one that COUNTS, right?!

So here we are again--with yet ANOTHER National Park sign! Once we passed the sign, I began to have serious second thoughts about this decision. It took FOREVER to get through the gate because there were soooooo many cars. On a Monday in May--what's up with that?! We finally got through and drive to the first look-out point, next to the visitor's center. I've been to the Grand Canyon three or four times, but I've NEVER seen it like this. The parking lot was absolutely PACKED. We were fortunate enough to nab a great parking space from someone who was just pulling out, so that was nice. Especially since you can no longer just walk over to the rim and look over. They are doing some sort of maniacal construction project there right now and they have absolutely torn up jack. It's a MESS. There are orange cones and tape and fences all over the place, weaving you on a mile long path just to get to the edge to look over--with heavy equipment humming all around you. That was nothing though compared to the number of PEOPLE around you! It was NUTS!!!
And I have just about decided that Americans really aren't interested in seeing any of the sights in America. The Asians are though. There were Chinese and Japanese and Korean people everywhere we went on this trip--tons of them. I think that's really cool. They obviously have a great appreciation for beauty. But I do think it's strange that the vast majority of people at these places are foreigners. Don't be fooled by what you see in the picture above. Even when you see people who you expect to be Americans, you have but to stand next to them for a moment before you hear them speaking in French or Italian or German or Polish. Crazy!

Anyway, we followed the mad mob down the little orange path until we finally arrived at the rim. Then we elbowed our way in to look out across the canyon. The kids looked out and said, "Wow." We stood there a few minutes and said it was time to go back to the van and Sam said, "What? That's IT?! We drove all the way out here just to look out at that hole and then LEAVE?!" Ha! We got back in the van and drove down the road a little bit, finding several other locations to pull over and look out across the canyon--prettier locations without the thousands of people. Nice. :-) And the kids did end up having a really great time (and James and me, too!) and now we've got good memories and PICTURES (for proof!) that we've all been there. Again. :-)

Sambo enjoyed checking things out with his binoculars.
It really is an amazing place. It was a little hazy and overcast, so you can't see it in all of its true glory, but still. Soooooo neat. And just think, that tiny little river carved out that canyon over millions and millions of years. HA! My kids get so many when I say that. It's so obviously a post-flood occurrence. Everything that we've seen on this trip just makes so much more sense when you know that there is a Creator and that this world and all of the glories of it didn't just accidentally happen.

I will say this. It is NOT fun to be at the Grand Canyon with kids this age. They scare me to death!!! I never used to be bothered be heights, but I'm amazed at some of the things that really bother me nowadays--even just driving a mountain road when there's a drop off on my side of the car! And when you go to a place like the Grand Canyon with kids who are at the age to not have sense enough to stay back. Or even to just NOT RUN UP TO THE EDGE and then expect to be able to stop on a dime--on all that loose gravel! I was a nervous wreck the whole time. The kids kept telling me to just RELAX, but I couldn't do it. Sometimes I would just turn around and leave them with James because I couldn't bear to watch.

They were all standing up on this rock posing for a picture (before this one) and suddenly Joe turns and screams and jumps off the edge. I had no idea there was any ground back there (where Katie is in this picture) and the split second before he landed just about gave me a heart attack--which was Joe's intention all along, of course. Jerk. Ha! It must've been some Steve Smith genes that inspired that little move.

Aaaaaaahhhhhh! They were killin' me!!!


But we all made it out unscathed. :-)