Day 4 (Part III): The Grand Canyon

So after the  complete and utter awesomeness of Upper Antelope Canyon, we headed over to the south rim of The Grand Canyon National Park.  The little branch of rte 89 outside of Page, AZ  (You know the one that would get us to our destination the quickest) was closed indefinitely due to a rock slide back in February. So instead of taking this little connector branch, we had to drive alllllllll the way around, through some pretty backroad, desolate areas. It put about 70 miles extra onto our drive. BUT, it was really amazing.  We went through some Native Reservation lands that were BREATHTAKING. Had this connector road not been closed, we never would have seen some of the amazing beauty that we did.  So I am happy in the fact that we really got to see some cool stuff. And what fun is a vacation where everything goes perfectly according to plan??

ONWARD EVER ONWARD...
We arrived at the Grand Canyon a little after noon.   The first viewpoint will TAKE YOUR BREATH AWAY. (Insert Berlin song from Top Gun here). The kids were jaw droppingly floored.  Finn asked "Why dont we have stuff like this in North Carolina?"

As you can tell from most of the pictures, it was a cloudy day. Rain was moving in. We had a good 2-3 hours before it hit, so we were able to see and do a lot before it hit.

how far can you see??

WE climbed to the top of the tower. It was warm, humid and crowded, from all the people. It kind of smelled like the gym locker room at the YMCA.  This tower was constructed back in the 1930's as a tourist spot. It was built to resemble the old architecture of the area native americans.  has lots of look out points, and about a zillion gift shops.  The inside art was all done by native american artists.

We finished the day stopping at all the other lookoff points, excavated ruins and stop offs.

my boys

♥ love this man ♥ 

a nice Swedish family offered to take our picture for us...

Help, Im falling!

excavated ruins

Here comes the rain...

various tribes that call Grand Canyon their home.

After we were done at the Grand Canyon, we headed out through the pouring rain down to Flagstaff for the night. 

We ended up at a Denny's for dinner. It was TERRIBLE.  In fact it was so bad that they gave us an additional 20% off.(without us even having to ask...)

  So with kids eating free,  and an additional 20% off, our grand total was like 14$.  So I guess I cant complain too terribly.  Wait, yes I can. It was horrendous.

Charles ordered Smoked Cheddar Mashed Potatoes as his side dish.  What came out was hungry jack from a box potatoes with a Kraft American single torn up into bits over the top. 

But every vacation has to have a little bit of a down side, to appreciate the upside.  And Grand Canyon was DEFINITELY an up.