Courtney's Blog July 17th, Day 12 of the Epic McFarland Journey!

We knew there was a risk when we started out...and.....it happened. We were robbed today. He only took 2 bucks, though!

Today was the big day! Gideon has been waiting for "the train day" for quite awhile! We started off the morning with a nice breakfast, then headed to see the live Wild West show. It was more a comedy show than Wild West and it was a lot of fun. Gideon "didn't yike the shooting" and said "that's bad, mommy, wight?" Other than that, we had a good time watching the show. On a positive side note, we met our new Uncle Turtle (his cowboy name). We are going to have Caitlin marry this man - what do you think, Cait? He seemed a-ok to me!!!

After the show, we boarded the train and left the station at 9:30! Gideon was PSYCHED!! We got our own four person seating area so we all got to face eachother. The railway began running to the Grand Canyon in 1901, stopped for a short period of time and restarted in 1948. The car we sat in, The Grand View, was from the 1948 train! Original seats and all, and was very comfortable! Gideon got such a kick out of the train...for the first 2 minutes. Abby acted as if she didn't know we were on one. But overall, a nice two hour trip to the canyon, with limited kid issues. Adam and I enjoyed a nice time where we were moving, but neither of us was driving. We didn't see much wildlife (until the ride home).

We arrived at the Grand Canyon at 11:30 and got right on our bus for The Grand Tour! First stop was a very unappealing lunch. We had to sit family style with others and that was fun because Gideon was throwing a fit about eating anything from there. After lunch, we headed on to the first stop. I got to use my new camera! Very impressive, but still tried to stop and see the canyon through both my eyes :-). Here, Gideon threw another huge fit because Adam wouldn't let him run off the edge and into the Canyon. Adam, be reasonable. Some old man came up and tried to explain to Gideon how he would "die" if he went over the edge. For the next 30 minutes, Gideon kept telling me "Mommy, you don't want me to die, wight?" Thanks old man, but mind your own next time. At stop two, Abby got some great pictures. She did some awesome climbing on the rocks (no, not near the cliff edge). At the third stop, we saw 4 Californian Condors! Beautiful! Wait and see Adam's pictures for this! The tour was already over ..wah..wah... Thank God we came yesterday, 2 hours is not enough time to take it all in! If you look carefully in the pictures, you can see the Colorado river. The Colorado river made the canyon as deep as it is, but old, ancient and disintegrated oceans made the width of the canyon.

Before we had to board the train, we had some time. We hiked breathlessly up 45 steps in 7000 altitude to see a Hopi Indian dance. It was amazing, especially because it was probably high 80s and this guy was jumping around in full gear. Abby loved the show and I even saw some of her dance moves :-).

We headed back on the train for another two hours. On the way back, though, we saw BANDITS outside the window. The train obviously stopped to let them on. They robbed us of two dollars! Gideon loved handing over the money. Abby was terrified! We had a good time teasing the bandits and can honestly say it was the most polite robbing I have ever seen.

We also bought a ridiculously expensive picture they took of us in the train, but it was a nice picture, and Gideon told me "Guggie can put it in her living room" so I felt compelled to get it. We came back to the hotel for dinner, and had yet another, fit from Gideon. This time because I asked him to eat Mac and Cheese. I took him for a well deserved time out where passerbys looked at me cruely as Gideon screamed "I want to eat! I am hungry!"

After dinner, we stop at the hotel desk to see if Blankie has arrived. Guess what? He did. Stay tuned for the re-united video (look on the videos page). Abby is sleeping next to us and she is snoring like crazy. Thank you Guggie. You're a lifesaver.

Sidenote: Did you know the Grand Canyon park has its own population and village? The employees and their families live there permanently. There is a school with approximately 300 kids. They have a general store, a bank, a post-office, police, fire and a hospital!

Summary:

Got blankie back, 3 fits, 1 official time out, new camera broken in, 16 days away from knowing if Mommy is a CPA.

Ended the Day at the Grand Canyon Railroad Hotel, Williams, Arizona

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