Traveling on the Trail

Last week I had my favorite aunt (who I grew up with) and favorite cousin (from a different aunt) in town visiting from Oklahoma. My cousin had never seen the Grand Canyon, and as my husband used to live there and knows the best places to show visitors and tourists, we had to go. 

Traveling with a one year old by car is never fun, but let me tell you, a road trip around the state of Arizona was not something on her to-do list. That's for another post though.

Since the Grand Canyon is about thirty degrees cooler than the valley, we didn't have to rush to go on our little hike. We enjoyed a nice breakfast, even though we missed the buffet and I was super disappointed, and then were ready to get going and show Cousin Theresa the big hole in Arizona. On our way through the national park, my husband, Lee, made Theresa turn her head anytime the canyon was close to view. He did this because he has a certain way he always shows newcomers to the Canyon. 

Lee always takes people to Shoshone Point for their first view of the Grand Canyon. It's pretty isolated and definitely not a tourist spot. It's about a mile walk from where you park your car to the edge of the hole through a nicely forested area. The sky is a perfect blue and as you walk along you can smell the freshness of the pine trees in the air. It's so peaceful and a great way to feel closer to nature. 

Me and the fam walking to Shoshone Point

As we approach the view of the canyon, Lee's plan is to blindfold Theresa and guide her to the point so that her first view is up close and personal. He did this to me years ago the first time he brought me here too-except I had to ride piggy back and I swear he was walking backwards...

Theresa has been blindfolded. She's a bit terrified.

Here's Theresa, blindfolded and being guided to the edge by yours truly:)

I don't have a picture of her initial reaction, but the wipe away of tears here might help you picture it. (We did a video recording instead of pics.)

It was Baby J's first visit to the GC too!

After taking pics, it was time to walk back. Theresa was not excited about that at all. She is terrified of heights. You see how she was sitting down and not really even close to the edge-she was holding on to rocks for security. 

Theresa did not like the narrow path way and said if she hadn't been blindfolded, she never would have made it this far. Do you see Lee, Baby J, and me up on the rock?

Due to the road trip, Baby J was running on fumes and really lacked some good sleep. She was cranky, so we thought we'd give her some time to stretch her legs before heading back on the trail. 

How cute are they??

Best picnic bench view ever!

Baby J is always getting into something.

It was a good thing we stopped. Baby J had to work something out and that would have been horrible if she was stuck in the carrier with that! Of course, I left my wet bag in the car. Why? Because it had other diapers in it and I didn't want to carry any extra dirty diapers. Duh! What was I thinking? Luckily, I had a leftover plastic grocery bag in my diaper bag. I don't think I ever have grocery bags in here, so I felt really fortunate. I could have just wrapped it up and snapped it, (which I've done before in a pinch) but it's always better to be safe than sorry. 

After she was fresh and clean, we put her back in the carrier and headed back. Poor Baby J ran out of fuel and fumes and crashed on the way back. She really needed a rest, so we let her sleep for a little while after we got back. 

I did have sunscreen on Baby J and I kept putting a hat on her, (which wasn't an easy task b/c if you haven't noticed, Lee's a foot taller than me,) but she kept throwing it off. :(

All pooped out-no pun intended!

And just for fun-this was the first time I saw the Grand Canyon-August 2005

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