Courtney's Blog July 16th, Day 11 of the Epic McFarland Journey!

It was a long run with my camera. 6,000 pictures, tons of memories. We said goodbye today. You've noticed that black/grey dot on every picture, right? Driving me NUTS. Well it was on the sensor. How did it get there? NO idea. So, that means we have to take it to be professionally cleaned. But Adam decided to trouble-shoot himself..what was there to lose? Long story short, the black/grey dot smudges. The issue is 10 times worse...so, we got a new fancy schmancy one....

But before it took its final shots, we made it all the way to a baby canyon before the Grand one. This is a Navajo Nation park. It was small but gorgeous. We had fun climbing around the area. We didn't spend too much time there, though, because we wanted to be sure to get a lot of time at the Grand Canyon! We stopped in the parking lot which is where the camera murder took place.

We drove forever out to the Canyon (1.5 hours is a long time when you're excited to see it!). I was a little sad because I didn't have my camera to take pictures. But, I tried to embrace the John Mayer essence:

I'm writing you to
catch you up on places I've been
You got this letter
probably got excited, but there's nothing else inside it
didn't have a camera by my side this time
hoping I would see the world with both my eyes
maybe I will tell you all about it when I'm
in the mood to lose my way with words

Besides, I'm 100% positive that I cannot capture the moment and grandeur of it all, AND Abby promised to take some amazing shots! Let me tell you. Holy Cow. You can't help but say "Wow". It feels so insulting. Wow isn't even the beginning, but it's all your tiny brain can muster at that moment. Tiny. You realize just how amazingly small we all are. The canyon is 10 miles wide on average, 18 miles wide at the widest, 1 mile down and almost 300 miles long. 4 Sears Towers would fit inside it before it reached the top. I'm not sure how you pictured it. But I pictured, almost, a big cereal bowl. This is so different. It is filled with valleys and peaks and reds and hope and greens and blues and peace. We toured the east side of the south rim. The west side tour is tomorrow. We stopped about 6 times on the driving trail in order to get different views. There are handrails (sometimes) and just open cliffs (sometimes). The park rangers let you go out to where you feel comfortable, so people we right on the edge. Nutty. Some chick was doing yoga poses about 2 feet from the edge. I guess she was experiencing the moment different than I did. And the clouds. Just stop it. I cannot handle how perfect and fluffy they are! They look like they sit evenly across the sky on a clear floor.

Still, I kind of pictured the first time we saw it to be like that commercial...I can't find it online, so I'll describe it. It's this family, on a roadtrip. There is a mom, a dad, a son and a daughter. They are all immersed in their electronics and ignoring eachother. Then they see some beautiful site (I think a forest) and get out of the car and forget their electronics. They put their arms around eachother and there is silence. It's about reconnecting and /or selling cars. Anyways, that's how I kind of pictured the moment. A take your breath away kind of "awww". This is how it really happened:

Abby: What is this? Is this the grand canyon?
Gideon: Are we all getting out of the car?

Oh well, you can't always be the perfect family, right? I actually appreciated not having my camera. Like John said, I focused on just taking it all in and loving the sites. It was crowded, but not crowded enough to feel deprived of time alone with the canyon.

We left the canyon after a couple of hours and were excited to come back the next day for our Tour! On the ride back, Gideon had the mother of all fits. You can read why in Abby's blog, I won't bore you. He's doing great, and this is expected. It was a hot day, lots of traveling, lots of excitement...I think we all felt like he felt, but he was the only one man enough to show it! He is stubborn...I have NO idea where that comes from. We let him scream almost 25 minutes before I gave up and asked him to calm down. He finally did, we got a hug and kiss, and an apology and the rest of the night, he was amazing.

As you know, we are looking for license plates to get our 50 state bingo! This was a great place to look because there are tourists from EVERYWHERE. But mainly other countries. So many foreigners. Anyhow, Abby spotted a Hawaii plate! Very exciting. Gideon, who responded "where" when I asked him if he saw the big canyon, had a great unintentional joke today too. Abby saw a plate that said "Miami" on it. She said "oh, that's Miami". Gideon responded, "yeah, that is your ami". Haha, good one Gid!

We headed to Flagstaff to get me a new awesome camera! Lots to study tonight! We are staying at the Grand Canyon Railway Hotel. It is so nice here! A dip back in time. Rustic smells, beautiful rooms and an awesome train we get to ride tomorrow!

Part of the package we got gave us a buffet dinner. At dinner, there was a show to see a live singer. Gideon adored him. His name was Ryan Biter and he was a little bit country, a lot a bit blues.

Summary:

Made it to the grand, and not so grand canyon. Lost a camera, gained a camera. One more day till blankie. Gideon sings the blues (get it?)

Ended the Day at the Grand Canyon Railway Hotel, Arizona

Previous Day!
Next Day!