Where are you Grand Canyon?

Day 6 and 7

We travelled the final 200 miles from Kingman to the Grand Canyon. I almost fell asleep at the wheel at one stage as the road is so straight and flat and long... It looks a bit like you could get abducted by an alien space ship at any moment.... But that didn't happen.

Aaron had a go at driving while I slept but once I woke I found it far more stressful to be the passenger than the driver. We stopped at a road side Gas station that looked straight out of a pulp fiction movie and I swear if you had stolen a pack of chewing gum the guy behind the counter would have pulled out a double barreled shot gun and blown your head off!!!!

The road we travelled runs parallel to Route 66 so you get glimpses of it as you drive which is pretty cool. The road we were on was a freeway with only one way traffic which is a relief when you're on the wrong side of the road.

As we got closer to our destination it began to snow which was exciting to start with.... The
snow wasn't sticking and melted when it hit the ground which was a good sign.... Although once we arrived in Tusayan Grand Canyon the snow was getting heavier... After checking into the hotel we were eager to get into the Canyon to view one of the seven wonders of the world.

Well hello Hamlton fog... Did you really need to follow us half way around the world... We could not see more than 10 meters in front of us and saw nothing of the canyon...

Back to the hotel and a swim and spa later we ventured back to the canyon and still nothing.... Had a look around village and visitors centre and saw some wild deer on the side
of the road but no canyon... Learnt a lot about how the canyon formed...looked at fossils and rock types etc... Which was all very well presented and really cool and interesting but not the same when you can't see it!

Never mind tomorrow is another day!!!

day 7

Woke up to breakfast in the hotel which the kids thought was amazing as the cereal was fruit
loops (basically brightly coloured sugar encrusted circles), luckily the donuts were up high and they didn't spot those....

We then decided to try our luck back in the canyon and would you believe it... It was still foggy and had snowed quite extensively overnight and the snow had stuck!!! Great excitement when hunks of snow slid onto the windscreen.... Oh it's the small things in life!!!!

We got into the canyon but visibility was far worse than yesterday so out we came and headed
to the local museum... Well what a treasure this was... It was a privately owned collection of information about cowboys and Buffalo Bill, Calamity Jane and Annie Oakley to name a few... The kids learnt to play a card game in a replica saloon and we got up close and personal with some buffalo (stuffed - really wooly and warm feeling so you can see why they were hunted), the kids made replica horses (out of pipe cleaners), similar to artifacts made of wood they find in the Canyon, and Sophie walked around with a clipboard collecting information she felt was of interest... (you would be proud Mrs Adam).

We walked around the general store and found nothing great to eat so a smoothy for mum then Mcdonalds for the kids.... Well Mcdonalds was a highlight... The happy meal toy was "so much
better than you get in NZ" Quinlan apparently got a "really rare" Bakugan and Sophs ended up with another soft toy.... We have now collected 4 so far ... A lobster from the arcades in Disney, Princess Marie (a cat of course) bought sighted precious spending money, a dog with a cage.. How we will get this on next plane I will never know... And now this rabbit.

Sophs desperately wanted to buy cowgirl gun and holster set in hot pink to match her genuine leather pink cowboy boots she bought at a real cowboy store in Kingman but we talked her out of that one as we envisaged massive hold ups (no pun intended), and disruptions at every airport we tried to get through from here on in.

We are all really disappointed we can't see the canyon and it's not looking promising for tomorrow either but we will wait and see. There is a huge storm crossing the USA at the moment and 15 feet of snow has been predicted over the next few days for Tahoe so at least there will be snow when we get there..... We are hoping the storm passes before we fly to Tahoe on Xmas eve otherwise we might be stuck in Vegas for Xmas!!!!

it was a great day to lounge around and rest and just recover from our Disney excitement and jet lag etc so all good. The kids have enjoyed the pool here and dinner tonight at a Mexican restaurant (named Sophies Mexican Kitchen) which was great something new for the kids to try. We had churros for dessert which was something we tried at Disneyland and we now know is A mexican thing.... We thought the Disney ones were good but these were amazing..... Once again the meals were too big to fiinish and we shared the dessert between four.