9.11.2007

we're back

so i have loads of pictures to share from our trip! and there are some i will have to share later, as i am waiting to receive the pictures from my mom and brother.

so the plane trips there were not too bad! from o to dallas was fine, but the dallas/fw airport is crazy! they have these trams that take you to the different terminals - they are very fast! then the trip from dallas to phoenix went great, as the three seats across the aisle were filled with a father, his 20 month old daughter and an empty seat! we strapped finn into the empty seat next to abby and they played the whole time! it was a dream.

we gained two hours on our way to az, so friday seemed like it was extra long. my mom and brother, zack, arrived in phoenix shortly after we did. we picked up our rental car and were quickly beginning our southwestern adventure. arizona is a lot more mountainous than i was expecting! it was also fun to see all of the crazy cacti.

our first stop on the trip was sedona (pictures for this leg will come later, as i didn't take any! but mom and zack got some great shots...). we ate a little dinner, and headed over to the pink jeep tour. mom had been to sedona before and had taken one of these tours, however, at that time, they took the less extreme tour. we took the broken arrow tour which took us all over the towering red rock for some great views. i'll share more details once i get some pictures to share. the tour lasted two hours, and then we were on our way to flagstaff for sleeping!! finn went to bed just fine that night, but woke up at 4:30!! oh well.

saturday morning we went to see one of only two meteor craters on earth (i believe there is a third one on the moon...). it was a bit pricey to view this hole in the ground, but what the heck, we were on vacation! but it pretty much was, a hole in the ground. a big hole. after that we hopped in the car and traveled along route 66 (through seligman az, which is the birthplace of route 66!) to peach springs, where we went to the grand canyon caverns. we went as a family to a cavern in tennessee, so it was fun to carry on the tradition. finn even met a little friend along the way. after the caverns, we went through the hualapai indian reservation, hoping to travel down a dirt road, to the colorado river AND the bottom of the grand canyon. the ranger guarding the road mentioned that about 9 miles had been washed out the previous week. it was still okay to travel on, but as there was rain headed our way, she suggested to avoid going down. because the ground is so dense, flooding is quite typical in that area. so we were pretty sad that that whole thing didn't work out. we spent the next 30 minutes trying to find a road my brother had heard of that would take us to the grand canyon faster than going back to the freeway... we tried one road, and it ended up leading to the seligman city dump! oh well.... so we just took the freeway up to the GC. we got settled into our rooms, ate, and went to bed.

sunday we spent pretty much the whole day at the GC. it was amazing. no photo can capture the vastness and beauty of the canyon. we were able to view it from many different points, all looking similar, but unique in their own way. we even got caught in a little rain storm for about 15 minutes. and following that storm was a double rainbow, right in the canyon! it was beautiful. we ended the day with a beautiful sunset off of hopi point.

on monday we hopped back in the car and traveled south to phoenix to catch our flight. we were all supposed to fly to chicago together, and then part our separate ways from there... however, many flights had been delayed because of the huge storm in dallas. for awhile i was certain we were all staying the night in phoenix again, but mom worked her magic and got us rerouted. it ended up working better because we got on a direct flight to o. finn and i left my family at their terminal (as we were in a different one...) by the time i got my luggage checked, it was already 2:00 and finn still hadn't had lunch, AND had leaked through his diaper and shorts :( we grabbed a quick burger and off through security we went. of course, we were chosen at random for the "additional security check" and had to have everything in our bags examined carefully. i was frisked, and imagine my surprise when they asked me to hold out finn's arms so he could be frisked too!! he is EIGHTEEN months old! it was pretty funny. he did well though.

a couple of hours later we were home, and ready for bed.

this was a wonderful trip... a little stressful with a small child, but wonderful. it was great to be able to go somewhere with my family, as family vacations were on the short side when we were little because of finances... so this was a great treat. everyone should see the grand canyon... and you could easily spend 2-3 days just exploring the canyon! thanks mom and zack for making this possible, we had lots of fun!

1 comments:

joyce said...

what an amazing adventure, Corrie! How wonderful that you got that opportunity! I would love to see GC again someday...also without a child! (Chari was 6 months old!) I can just picture Finn getting frisked! Wish someone could have taken a picture! What a great story to tell!!!