Vaca 2021, Day 8 - Below the Rim Hiking At The Canyon That Is Grand

I woke up shortly after 4am with a strong need to go potty and got back into bed only to find that I could not go back to sleep. I flip from one side to the other, wash, rinse and repeat. I woke Lesley up shortly thereafter and she too, had trouble going back to sleep. She is smarter than me and decided to get up and get showered to help the other 3 of us get our lazy butts up and moving.

At one point, she cleverly announced that she was going to get breakfast, which includes coffee, and me, being tuned into her "vibe",  knew exactly what was expected and what would result if the assumed expectations weren't met (ie, the boy's butts had better be ready to go when she got back!!).

I went first getting ready and was clever enough to again wake up the boys  and let them know exactly where Mama was at and what was expected.  Luckily for us males, there was an elk up by the road where you turn to return to our moth infested  hotel room.  

Big boy passing thru town.

It delayed her return by a bit, but we were mostly ready when she got back.

We were stuffing our pie holes as we got the van loaded to hit the road! The breakfast burritos were HUGE!!!   And better yet, they were really good!

This morning, after checking out, we're heading back North to the South rim of the Grand Canyon for a "below the rim" hike.

We started the "hike" from the parking lot down to the bus terminal when Rob and I witnessed a lady vomiting into the bushes just before you get to the actual waiting area for the buses.  Hmmm...  omen, maybe?  Who knows...  I'm sure it's fine.

So we wait for just a few minutes before the bus rounds the corner and unloads hoards of humans so that we can get on.  We get to our trail head without incident and start down the trail.

Early photo from when we were just starting the hike.  Can't beat the beauty even though pictures can never do justice to nature!

We would learn quickly about what we were going to be faced with.  This sign about mules was one lesson and we encountered a LOT of mule poop on our descent.

I don't have a great picture of it, but much like Carlsbad Caverns, you're on trail switch-backs to get you down to the real hiking level.  This is the edge of one of those switch-back corners.  Watch'cher step, youngins!!!

The next corner down from the photo above.

Now we're leveling out some...  

Mama taking a photo for another family with young kiddos.

That family returned the favor and took a few pics of our ghastly mugs!

Another place to watch your step!  One stumble and you're on the fast track to the Colorado River. My bum left knee is keen on my mind in spots like this!

Another drop from the edge of the trail.

Dad looking at the last picture that he tried to take as my phone was starting to act differently around this point, whether it was a recent update or not, I don't know.

This is what we were hiking too.  I can't remember the name of it for sure.  Peek-a-boo point maybe? It was cool but too many people...

 

My little gray squirrel buddy.

Caleb sitting on the edge of the world.  Now that I see the sign that he's resting his hand on, I remember that this is called, "ooh, ah, point".

Rob found himself a place to crawl up to away from the people.  Like father like son.

Caleb, who is dreaming of jogging back up.

Lovely!

This was taken after a good hour of two of driving to Desert View Watchtower.

There's the watchtower that we traveled too, only to find that you cannot go up the tower. Why?  Covid, of course.  But what can you do?  You can cram your butts into the gift shop and ice cream store where they will happily take your covid infested money but you cannot climb up the FREE tower because these over-conscientious b@st@rds are concerned about our health...  stupidity all the way down.  I was a bit honked off!

 

Sadly... The First Bike Ride of the Year

 

That's Caleb in the newly developing park behind 4-Mile Elementary.  He was a happy boy, and I was an exhausted sweaty dad who had drank all of his water and wanted to go home!

Vaca 2021, Day 7 - Leaving the Pool, Craters, & a Canyon That Is Grand

Woke up around 6am today. I was kind of/sort of hoping for another morning of floating in the pool this morning again. Full solitude and all of that.  However, once I had shared my beautiful story of yesterday morning while we were playing Blitz, both boys made it abundantly clear that if Dear ol' Dad was getting in the pool in the morning, they wanted me to wake them up as they wanted to join me.  I knew that meant that I wouldn't have the quiet, resetting-the-mind-and-body floating that I had yesterday, but I also am keenly aware that if I blink two more times, these guys will be moving out and heading into their next "chapters".  That gets me a bit misty and as so, I keep that in mind at all times.  

Well, by golly, I woke them both to see if they still wanted to swim, but apparently, it didn't seem like as good as an idea at 6:45am as it did the previous afternoon/evening.

No matter to me as I had kept my side of the bargain and I also had a ton of stuff to do packing-wise to get ready to hit the road this morning.  So I started doing all of the stuff that would have been on my list had I taken the time to make a list.

Roughly 1/2 hour had passed and mom gave the final notice that it's now or never for one last swim in our private pool.  That got their attention and soon enough, Caleb and I were floating happily around the waters surface.  Rob drug his bones out a few minutes later, but had to go back inside to get the water football so we could, at the very least, play catch.

It was a fun time, but time has no mercy and we had to get out.  Time to pack and load!

We were hoping to be packed and loaded, hitting the road no later than 9am, but it was 9:15am as we exited the driveway.  All of us were a bit sad that we were leaving this place, hot as it was, it was fantastic and I think the boys could have spent a week in this house alone!

These first pictures were taken before we left the driveway of that house.

There was a well placed, as far as we were concerned, outlet mall on our way out of town and they had, of all things, a Starbucks!  So breakfast sammy's and one of the best bold and black Venti's that I've ever had in recent memory!

Off we go!

We drove a few hours before stopping for gas and a potty break... couldn't tell you where tho.  I can tell you that it was hot!

Back into the van and this time we drove all the way to Meteor Crater Natural Landmark near Winslow Arizona, and yes, I was singing, "Well I'm a standing on a corner in Winslow Arizona and such a fine site to see.  It's a girl my Lord in a flat bed Ford slowing down to take a look at me.".

Don't miss your opportunities folks!

Anyway, it turns out that even tho Mama and I had been here before but now we wanted to show the kids, it's not a cheap visit, but still super cool to see!

I was telling the boys about a scientific paper that I had read several years ago that was presenting some theory's about how the grand canyon was created.  It had theororized that from the melting of glaciers, 10,000+ years ago, there was a HUGE melt water pond up North in, I believe Montana somewhere, that when a meteor hit (I don't think it was this one as this appears to be a pretty direct impact), it catapulted debris of very large size up North and there was evidence presented where some of the evidence of the debris impact landed in Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana and affected the dam holding back this huge melt water pond. This set off the flow of that water, which became greater and greater until it drained completely, carving many of the formations that we see today.  True?  Dunno.  Certainly a very cool theory and paper, and I will continue trying to find it!

But here we are at the crater.  Sorry for another sidebar...

Rob is in charge of family selfie's as he's the best at them.  My phone provided assistance to him at some point as a movable white dot appeared where you could move that to the most comfortable place to produce selfies....

I tried to get him to squeeze the aliens cute little butt, but he was having none of it!

Selfie queen again!

These two!!!  I love how they often have their SEP football shirts on at the same time!

The biggest chunk of the meteor that caused all of the trouble!

We piled back into the van and this time yet again and are now headed to the South rim of the Grand Canyon.

We arrived mid-afternoon as I truly have no idea of when we pulled into town and checked into our moth infested hotel room.  For the record, we're staying at the Grand Canyou Plaza Hotel.  I recommend that you don't!  We've ended up the lives of nearly 40 moths thus far and the b@st@rds still seem to be coming from somewhere!

Purposely left moth smear on their curtain.

A collection of carcasses.

Piles of moth carcasses in the garbage.

more carnage...

After checking in and battling our winged enemies, we headed up to the canyon that is considered grand. Caleb's reaction as he first laid eyes on it is EXACTLY what you hope for as a parent! It was complete amazement and awe! WOO-HOOO!!! Rob's reaction was amazement too, but more subdued. He was quite impressed with the size of everything and said something to the effect of, "I thought the Grand Canyon was just like this over here". Better yet? Both boys wanted to come back in the morning! MONEY!!!

While waiting for our hike (mom was in the gift shop) Rob and I saw Cookie Monster!  We didn't bother him for fear that he was hungry!

Trying to take a pic while the sun is blinding you!

My 3rd selfie ever!  A little too much of myself in the pic. The boys got a kick out of this.

Caleb dressing up the G.C.!

Rob practicing for senior pictures!

A bit blurry but the lad is clearly enjoying something!

These two melt my heart!

My love of a "dead" tree pic with cool backgrounds is starting to ramp up!

Rob was going crazy with the people sitting on the edge of the world.  There were quite a few of these folks.

These two again!  Love seeing smiles on both faces during our rather "demanding" vacations!

The Schmitz boys marching to the beat.

Sasquatch!!!  My big butt venturing near an edge to my death.  The rocks beneath me are hoping that I do not topple!

I really like this pic as the boys are clearly NOT interested in whatever Mama is mapping out for us next!  They do NOT understand that it is their best interest that she is doing due diligence as she is!

Once we finished our walk (can't call it a hike since it's on a paved path on the rim), we drove for a bit more around the park, stopping at a General Store  that I remembered from 14/15 years ago that had good local beers.  It was true again this time!  Happy Ted.

After that, we drove back into town to a steakhouse to have some dinner.  Whenever a restaurant has Calamari (yes, it NEEDS to be capitalized!!) on the menu, we order it. This one had it and we ordered it! They brought it to the table and in true Schmitz fashion, we tore into it like we had not eaten in weeks!  About the time that we were licking the plate, a Mexican feller brings out another plate of exactly what we had just consumed.  Mama Chaos tells him that we already recieved it.  He apologizes.  Then looks around/over his shoulders, winks and smiles while raising a finger to his lips and says, "shhhhhhhhh!".  We had won the Calamari (fried squid)  lottery!!

A good meal was had, and we had some leftovers. Back to the moth-infested hotel room where we exterminated more winged hellions before another game of Blitz.

Another day in the books.