This is Alpha, the first-born, when he was 2YO.
This is Beta, the second-born, when he was about 2YO.
This is Gamma, the third-born, when he was about 18MO.
Vacation Recap 2018, Part 1
Aug
8
2018
We took a longer vacation this year, so there are a lot of photos. I won’t share all of them, but it should be enough for you to get a feeling for how it went.
First off, a flight to Phoenix. The plan was to have all carry-on luggage, nothing checked. So everyone had one large (carry-on size) bag and one small (personal item size) bag.
The fun started at the airport parking. Because we were going to be gone for about two weeks, I parked offsite. So we parked and then had to get in the shuttle – 6 people and 12 bags. The kids obliged the driver and gave him a number of bags to load in the back, which meant I had to give him a number of dollars for a tip. I saw that as a learning opportunity for the kids – one of the many new experiences they would have.
We got to our plane and boarded with no problem. A few hours later we were in Phoenix. We grabbed a rental minivan for the drive to the Grand Canyon. The boys were excited to try a new vehicle, only to find out that our choices were Dodge, Dodge, Dodge or Dodge – essentially the same vehicle we have at home. But we got a white van instead of a black van!
After some hours and a stop at the grocery store, we made it to Maswik Lodge. Because they don’t have family suites to hold more than 4 people, we had to get two rooms. They were adjoining and they were on the entry level. That is important, because my kids like to jump and stomp.
Here is what one of the rooms looked like:
The main thing is that the rooms had fridges. Fridges are important. Especially since we had that food from the grocery store.
We had some dinner at the food court then headed out to hike a trail. Bright Angel Trail, to be specific.
Here is the start of the trail:
The drop offs don’t look too steep from that angle, but they are a lot more impressive up close
We hiked down for a little bit, maybe 20 minutes or so, then turned around. The older 3 boys went ahead of me, I stayed with Delta and held his hand so he couldn’t accidentally fall too far.
We walked back to the rooms – Bright Angel Trail was about a quarter mile from our door – and everyone got ready for bed while I answered questions from Gamma about where the hotel gets its water since it’s in the desert.
Then it was evening, and morning the next day.
Since we were still on Eastern time, we woke up rather early for Arizona. But since we were there to see the sights, we figured it would be good to avoid the crowds and see the Grand Canyon by dawn’s early light.
Ok, maybe not dawn.
But we got to the visitor center before it opened, probably around 7:30
We hiked to one of the lookouts, then the center was open by the time we got back. We walked down the south rim trail a ways, and took some photos.
I tried a panorama shot, but the sun snuck into the corner and threw the exposure settings off.
We hiked down to the next place where there’s a bus stop, so we took the bus back to the visitor center and some of the kids picked out souvenirs at the gift shop. The main attraction though was the local wildlife:
We packed lunches to eat on the way, so we gathered those up, packed everything away, checked out by 11:00, and headed back to the airport.
We made one rest stop on the way, where we were treated to this view, along with a very hot and dry wind.
Then we turned in our rental van, hopped back on the shuttle to the airport, and were off to the next city.
To Be Continued…
On the cliff he dwells and lodges, Upon the rocky crag, an inaccessible place.
Job 39:28
This little article thingy was written by Some Guy sometime around 6:22 am and has been carefully placed in the Travel category.
