saturday. october 20. 2012

wow!  were our ears poppin' as we made the climb from low desert to the mountains around Flagstaff today!  And we really knew we'd left the beach when we began to see these signs.....

     

The climb from Glendale (Phoenix area) to Flagstaff is dramatic and beautiful and the sky was the most beautiful blue and the pines smelled like.......Christmas!!!  The last (and only) time either one of us had been to the Glorious Grand Canyon was the early '60s so this was really almost like the first time for us to see it.  We'd been captivated by Ken Burns' National Park video series and learned so much about this and other parks that we didn't know, but it meant so much to us to be coming here after having seen that video.  Your splendiferous public library has the series and we highly recommend it!

We've been talkin' about a trip to/ through the Canyon within the next couple of years (maybe a raft with a guide, maybe on a mule down the side~poetic, huh?~or even a train ride) so we knew we'd just be calling this 'preview day', because one day was all we had.......but such a good day it was......

Mather Point.....you could just stay there all day.....gives the phrase 'eye candy' a whole new meaning......it was breezy, the sun was setting.......and another dimension that we hadn't anticipated was the lyrical beauty of hearing so many different languages being spoken around us!  I can't ever remember being in one place where so many nationalities were gathered together in such close proximity for the purpose of admiring a singular object of grandeur......kinda gave us an "every eye shall see, every knee shall bow.....every tongue shall confess" kind of feeling:)

 

 

 

 

So we got our passport stamped (wow! that's five stamps in three weeks! some kind of dangerous precedent we're setting here, mr. s;)) then headed off to Bright Angel Lodge (built in 1885) for a delicious dinner followed by a short hike on the Bright Angel Trail, before heading back to Flagstaff for the night.

 

We arrived at our wonderful Wyndham Flagstaff condo well after dark so we didn't get to appreciate the beauty of this resort till morning (it's definitely worthy of a repeat extended stay!).  One of our favorite after dark rituals (especially when we're in a city/town where we can drive a short distance to escape city lights) is to enjoy the 'starry, starry night'!  WELL, this resort was already removed enough from city lights that all we had to do was walk out on the condo's deck to enjoy the majesty of a beautiful night sky, the edge of the Milky Way and even a shooting star!  I (mom/cathie) had visions of taking a picture the next morning of  'feet propped up on deck railing while enjoying my morning jo' but....would you believe it.....it was too cold.....so, no.......that one willl have to wait!

 

So Sunday was a beautiful travel day from Flagstaff down to the high desert of northern New Mexico and then Monday, another safe (thank you, Lord, we feel so blessed) travel day under cloudier but pleasant skies from Tucumcari to home sweet home.

 

It will be so good to see you sweet kiddos and darlin' grands while we're home for a couple of days (oh, and do laundry, pay bills, rake leaves, mow, decide what to repack and what to leave and generally catch our breath) before we depart on Thursday for Florida for the second half of our adventure.  So, until then.........