Tuesday, June 24, 2008

South Rim Pictures

Some of you were asking, so here are some pictures from the Grand Canyon South Rim

Seligman, AZ and Las Vegas


Sorry for the delay - we've been crazy busy since we got home. Nothing special, just the usual - tearing out the kitchen and stuff like that.

So anyway, our last two days out West were very fun. We left Williams and headed through one of the longest remaining stretches of Route 66 through a little town called Seligman. The town is famous for its little Route 66 shops and the Snow Cap Drive-In, which is a little burger and fries place. The Snow Cap is a great place to eat - not because of the food (although it's good), but because of the pranks that the owner likes to play on his customers. We were there pretty early (around 10:30am) so we just ordered milkshakes, but that didn't stop the owner from pranking us. First he asked if I wanted a straw. When I told him yes, he reached down and got some straw (the yellow kind) and threw it on the counter. Then, he asked us if we liked mustard. When we said yes, he squirted us with mustard dispensers filled with silly string. Travis shouted and jumped - it was hilarious! Anyway, it was tons of fun, and the milkshakes were delicious.

We drove through the desert to Las Vegas, our last stop on our trip. We stayed at the Luxor, which did not offer internet access (they want to keep you in the casino, not in your room). Unfortunately, Travis's back was hurting him pretty bad, so he wasn't too keen on running all over the place, so we took it pretty easy while we were there. We walked along the strip a little bit, collecting "trading cards" for Darcy and seeing the various casinos. We watched the dancing waters at the Bellagio and saw the big fish tank at Cesar's Palace. It was fun, but we ended up with blisters on our feet from trying to get back to our hotel. They make it impossible to find your way around!

On our last day, we decided to skip the casinos and go see an exhibit. I've been interested in the Titanic since I was a little kid, so we went to see the Titanic Exhibition at Tropicana. It was awesome! They give you a boarding pass when you walk in, with information about a specific passenger. At the end, you get to find out whether you lived or died. They had recreations of state rooms, the grand staircase, and the promenade deck. The coolest thing, though, were the actual artifacts they had brought up from the ocean floor - clothing, jewelry, dishes, luggage, letters, shaving kits, etc. It was really something to see!

After the exhibit, Travis's back was killing him, so we sat in the sports book at The Venetian and watched a soccer game for awhile. Then we decided to head back to the airport. We spent our time there eating cinnabons and looking at magazines until it was time for our red-eye flight to Atlanta. The plane was packed, and I didn't get any sleep (I'm still jet-lagged), but we made it back ok!

We had a wonderful trip with many memories we'll never forget!

Oh - in case you're wondering - we didn't win any $$ in Las Vegas...

Pictures

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Leaving Las Vegas

We're sitting in the airport getting ready to leave fabulous Las Vegas for the green green hills of home. We haven't had internet access the past couple of days. Luckily for you, reader, you haven't missed a whole lot. I promise a long entry when we get HOME!

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Havasu Falls


Sit back and let me tell you a little story about the hike from Hell.

I am a person who is not in shape. I am not a person who should be hiking 20 miles in less than 24 hours. However, that is exactly what I just did.

Travis and I drove the 3 hours from Williams to Hualapai Hilltop and began our descent into Havasu Canyon. There were about 4 billion happy people gathering in the parking lot, waiting for their packs to be carried up by mules. You see, the Havasupai Indians own the area where the falls are, and they run a mule train through the canyon. You can pay $75 to have you and/or your bags hauled down (one way), pay $85 to ride the helicopter (one way) or you can hike straight in for free. Of course, the cost is in addition to a $35 admission fee plus $17 campground fee if you're staying overnight. All prices are per person. We decided to take the cheap route...

Picture this - the worst trail you've ever seen, covered in stinky mule poop, and it's 95 degrees outside. The entire first mile is a steep downhill slope of gravel, which means you're spending the entire time trying not to slip with every step (staying on your feet becomes more difficult when you're carrying a heavy backpack). After you get through the first mile, you walk through the oven-like canyon for about 3 1/2 hours until you reach the Supai village. People actually live in the bottom of this canyon. They ride horses in and out, and they rely on helicopter service to bring them the things they need. It's really neat to see. But anyway, back to my story. So at this point, you get pretty excited, thinking that you must be close to the waterfall, but oh no, my friend, you still have another 2 miles to hike in loose sand. By the time you reach the waterfall, which is beautiful, you don't really give a rat's behind about water falling because you feel like absolute garbage. So you explore the waterfall and set up camp WITHOUT A TENT, and you're starting to feel better when you realize that you have to do the exact same hike tomorrow, only this time the last mile and a half is UPHILL!!!

Yeah, so the camping wasn't so bad. Travis found a campsite with a picnic table that I could sleep on, and the stars were amazing. I saw 5 or 6 shooting stars - it was just incredible.

And then this morning we woke up and did the hike over again. The last mile and a half was a killer! It's basically like climbing lots and lots of stairs. I eventually let Travis go ahead of me while I kept repeating the tortoise mantra "Slow and steady wins the race..." over and over in my head. I had just turned around the next to last switchback when I saw Travis - he was coming back to carry my pack for me (how chivalrous :)). We made it out, and I will never do that again (unless I'm in much better shape).

Now we're both beat and ready to head to Las Vegas for some fun. What a trip this has been, but I'm ready to go home - I need a vacation from my vacation!

Check out the pictures

Saturday, June 14, 2008

Grand Canyon South Rim


Today...
we...
found...
an archaeological find!
We were driving along to the Grand Canyon when out of the passenger side window, I spotted it. It was a very large spinal column. Thinking that I had found a replacement for Travis's, I let out a high-pitched "Wa-hoo!" And of course, we just had to pull over and look at it.
Upon close, "scientific" examination, we decided that this spine would not work for Travis because it belonged to an elk. Out of respect for the dead, we did not take any pictures, but we took our find as a good Friday the 13th omen - this was going to be an interesting day. To add to our first good omen, as we were driving off, we found another elk - this one even less-decayed than the first!

I realize this is weird. I will stop talking about the dead elk now.

Elk.

Ok, so while we have timed everything else on this trip fairly perfectly, today we did not time as well. We really wanted to see the sunset over the canyon, so we tried to wait as long as we could before leaving, but we still ended up at the canyon around mid-morning, so after we had seen every single overlook and hiked rim trail, it was only 5:00, and we decided just to cut our losses and head back to Williams. We did have a wonderful day at the canyon, though.

Some highlights:
- The weather was perfect. 80 degrees made it nice to just walk around and look at the canyon.
- The canyon itself was amazing. It looks like someone took a gigantic canvas and just painted the scene by hand. It's really neat how the north rim and south rim are both so different - it really makes it worth it to see both.
- There was a raven sitting in the top of a tree, and it kept squawking at anyone who parked under it - he was funny to watch.
- While we were eating lunch, we saw some people walk by with a cute little grey and white miniature schnauzer. It made me miss Jax so much!
- We saw the historic El Tovar hotel and the Grand Canyon railway
- Elk - live ones!

It was a lovely day at the canyon, and now we are back in Williams. We ate at a little Mexican place called Pancho Magillicuddy's. It was ok...

This is all you will hear from us for a couple of days. Tomorrow we hike and camp at Havasu Falls on the Havasupai Indian Reservation. After that, we will head to Las Vegas to gamble away the rest of our money. Well...hopefully we will make it that far. You see, we never did find a tent, so right now we have some tarp, rope, and our sleeping bags. If you do not hear from us after 3 days, please send someone down to retrieve our half-eaten carcasses from the bottom of the canyon. Thank you.

In all seriousness, though, I was informed today that there are a lot of people getting enjoyment out of this blog. Thanks for reading - I'm glad we're not boring you!

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Jerome, Sedona, Williams


Hello from Route 66! We are currently staying on "the Mother Road" in a small town called Williams, which is the gateway to the Grand Canyon. We plan to visit the South Rim tomorrow.

Today we mostly went shopping in Jerome and Sedona. For those of you who were concerned, we did get to go to the House of Joy, and it was everything I hoped it would be. Haha, seriously it was a really neat little shop, and we bought a couple of gifts including a "Brothel Inspector" badge for my brother.

The shops in Sedona were nice, but pretty overpriced. Even the food is ridiculous. Travis almost had a nervous breakdown in the middle of the street because he was starving but refused to pay $12 for a deli sandwich. Sedona reminds me of a classier Gatlinburg - shop after shop after shop of mostly the same stuff. I did go to the Three Dog Bakery and bought a doggie cookbook, much to Travis's chagrin. Now I can make Jax all sorts of tasty homemade treats!

Williams is a really cute little town. We spent this evening walking up and down the streets, and we ate in a 50s-style diner and had milkshakes. We went to a store/B&B/bakery called "The Red Garter" which is a historic brothel. I'm becoming quite the collector of brothels on this trip. Anyway, I only mention that because they had a really neat exhibit of things they had found when they excavated part of the building (the old outhouse). They found shoes, whiskey bottles, morphine bottles, and opium paraphanalia. Through a hole in the floor, they found dice, shot glasses, and some more whiskey bottles. It was really interesting - kind of reminded me of my favorite cancelled tv show *sigh*.

This evening, the town put on an Old West shootout in the street with some actors who really looked like gunslingers. It was loud.

That's about it for today - no exciting stories to report. Go Celtics!

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Canyon de Chelly, Holbrook, Jackrabbit, Winslow, Sedona, and Jerome!


I am writing from a Best Western in Cottonwood, AZ. I'm still sunburnt, I've had 3 migraines in two days, and I'm afraid my feet are starting to smell, but I'm still trucking along. Travis is doing quite well. His old-man back is holding up, and he's watching pig-wranglers on the History Channel. I guess you could say he's in "hog heaven".

The past two days have been pretty out of the ordinary. Yesterday morning we left Colorado and headed back into Arizona. On the way, we had planned to stop at Four-Corners National Monument. When we pulled up, however, we were quite dismayed to see that there was a $3 charge to get in. Three dollars??? To lie on the ground??? We decided it wasn't worth it and headed back out on the road. I don't remember much of the morning trip because of the massive migraine wreaking havoc on my brain. I basically slept the entire three hour trip to Canyon de Chelly.

Now, I'm pretty sure that if we hadn't seen so many canyons and cliff-dwellings already, we would have been mad-impressed with Canyon de Chelly. Unfortunately, it really just looked like everything else we have seen during the past week, only smaller, so it was kind of a let-down.

There was reason to look up, however, because this was a special day - it was the day we would stay in a wigwam! We set a course for Holbrook, Arizona, and the historic Wigwam Motel on Route 66. Travis humored me by agreeing to spend the night in the wrongly labeled "wigwam" (they're actually cement teepees). What can I say? I'm into pop culture kitsch, and there is nowhere in the US where you can find more of it than on Route 66. I definitely got my kicks! The wigwam was surprisingly clean, but the restaurant where we ate dinner was NOT. Even Travis had trouble choking down the horrible food.

It was kind of a cruddy day.

Today, however, was much better. We woke up early, checked out of our lovely indian home, and headed down I-40 for the Jackrabbit Trading Post - one of my FAVORITE places in the entire world. The trading post has been in business since 1949, and the owner offers all sorts of useless junk. I bought a patch and some gifts. The best part about the trading post is the giant metal saddled rabbit that sits out front. You can ride the rabbit! I tell ya, nothing makes a girl laugh more than seeing her husband sitting on a giant rabbit. It was truly a Kodak moment.

After the trading post, we moved on to the well-known corner in Winslow, Arizona. We stood on the corner, and I tell ya - we were such a fine sight to see...

THEN we traveled down to the new-age haven, Sedona, AZ to hike to a vortex. We hiked Airport Mesa, but I didn't feel any sort of inspiration from the earth. Maybe I should have tried some yoga or something? Anyway, we didn't enjoy Sedona half as much as we did Jerome, which is a historic mining/ghost town that has been turned into a sort of artsy community. It's basically a more cheezy, more interesting, rougher Asheville. There were shops full of beautiful artwork, and we really enjoyed trying to figure out how the artists made some of their products.
Now, my mother was the one who told us about Jerome, and she had told us that we just had to go to two places - The House of Joy (a brothel turned gift shop) and Belgian Jennie's (a brothel turned pizza parlor - sense a pattern here?). Unforunately both of these places are closed on Wednesdays. I'm currently lobbying for another trip to Jerome tomorrow - I mean, how can you miss out on a place called The House of Joy?

Pics (including Travis on the rabbit)!

Monday, June 9, 2008

Mesa Verde


Today we went to Mesa Verde to see the cliff dwellings of the ancient people of Southwestern Colorado. All I could think all day long was how much Jenna would enjoy this (she's an archeologist, in case you didn't know). I really wish you could have been here, Jay!

Most of the cliff dwellings require a tour with a park ranger, as they are difficult to get to. We, of course, chose the two most difficult and "strenuous" tours.
The first took us to Cliff Palace, which archeologist think was some sort of gathering place. It has 100 rooms and is the largest cliff dwelling in North America. It was built from around 1190 to 1260 or something like that and was abandoned for unknown reasons (spooky!) around 1300. To get in and out of Cliff Palace, you have to climb 4 10-foot ladders, but that was nothing compared to the next place we went.

Balcony House was built for defense, and therefore is more difficult to get to. To get there, we had to descend a 100 foot staircase and climb a 32 foot tall ladder (made of sticks, practically). Then, to get out of the canyon, we had to literally crawl through a 12 foot long, 18" wide tunnel and climb 60 more feet on another large ladder and a set of stone steps on a cliff that made Angel's Landing seem like a piece of cake. It was just a little bit frightening, but lots of fun - definitely an adventure.

It was truly fascinating to see how the ancient folks lived - it definitely appealed to the nerdy sides of our personalities.

We hear it's hot in Knoxville - it's been nice here - 70 degrees average! We're sunburnt and can't find a tent for our Havasu Falls trip, but still having a great time!

Pictures!

Sunday, June 8, 2008

Monument Valley


Today we had a "monumental" day (ahh, I crack myself up). We headed out from Page toward Cortez, Colorado. We made a few stops along the way. The first was the Navajo National Monument. We took a short hike to an overlook where you could see the remains of a Navajo cliff dwelling. It was neat to see, but I'm sure it is nothing to compare with what we will see tomorrow at Mesa Verde. The museum area was really interesting, and they even had some actual Navajo people there doing weaving demonstrations. (Jenna, if you're reading this - you would have loved it).
The next stop was Monument Valley. It was pretty funny taking the spaceship (Prius) on the rocky terrain around the red cliffs. It was a bumpy ride! Very nice scenery - it really felt like we were in the old west. Lots of movies have been filmed in Monument Valley, including Stagecoach, The Searchers, and Back to the Future III. Unfortunately, things got a little rough toward the end of our journey. Apparently nobody told the Navajo that they should stock their port-o-potties with toilet paper. Yuck.
Anyway, now we are in Cortez. We just got back from eating at a little brewery in the middle of town. The place had Star Trek and Muppet murals on the walls - very strange, all these places we've been...
Pics

Saturday, June 7, 2008

Lake Powell and Antelope Canyon


Let me start off by saying that we have only been out here for a few days, but we have seen enough to fill a full vacation! This morning we headed out from Utah through the grand staircase into Arizona toward the Lake Powell area. What a bizarre little place! Close your eyes and picture it with me: desert...desert...desert...gigantic blue lake - what??? Very strange indeed. Well, we didn't pay the fee to actually go to the lake, but we did view it from afar. "Jacques Cousteau" and I walked down to a "scenic viewpoint" and left the trail to try and find a rattlesnake. Unfortunately (or fortunately?) we did not find one, but we did see 3 different lizards.
Basically, we were just killing time because we had a 1:30 reservation for the tour at Antelope Canyon. It's a slot canyon, which means that it's sort of a narrow slot cut into the red rock. Antelope Canyon is owned by the Navajo Nation, and they do not let anyone hike into it without a guide, hence the need for the tour. This is one of the most visited canyons by photographers because of the beautiful colors created by the light shining in from the top and reflecting off of the canyon walls. It was absolutely gorgeous, and we got some really good pictures.
Check out the pics

Now we're just chilling in Page, which is a strange little town in the middle of the desert (just like every other town we've seen so far). :)

Friday, June 6, 2008

Grand Canyon North Rim




Today we drove a couple of hours through beautiful Utah country to see the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. This side of the big hole is not as popular, and there were few crowds there today. It was really beautiful. We saw lots of mule deer and a coyote. It takes a long drive to get there, but it is definitely worth it, especially if you are on this side.

Some pictures!

Tomorrow, at the suggestion of the woman who runs the place where we are staying, we are taking a guided tour to Antelope Canyon, a slot canyon in Page, Arizona. It looks really amazing.

Tonight is our last night at the Historic Smith Hotel Bed and Breakfast. We have had such a wonderful time here. The people have been so kind, and we have met travelers from as far away as Belgium and as close as Clarksville, TN. It has also been so nice to start every day with a delicious homemade meal - the hotels we will be staying in for the rest of the trip will be tough to get used to! Speaking of meals, it will also be difficult to leave the Buffalo Bistro right next door. While they do serve some interesting items (buffalo, rabbit, the aforementioned Rocky Mountain oyster), the rest of the menu is delicious, particularly the chocolate/banana cobbler, which we have had two nights in a row, now.
Smith Hotel

Thursday, June 5, 2008

Bryce and Zion

Today was an interesting day. Who knew we would see snow in June?

It was 34 degrees at Bryce Canyon today, and the wind was gusting so hard, it was almost unbearable. Of course, I did not pack a jacket, so I decided I could brave the weather in a long sleeved t-shirt. Ha! I am now the proud owner of a Bryce Canyon sweatshirt. Travis has decided he is no longer going to listen to my advice, since when we were packing, I told him, "No, don't pack a jacket. It's the desert. It's going to be HOT!" I stand corrected.

So after a cold morning at the beautiful canyon, we headed back to Zion to see the emerald pools. They were really nice, and we saw some buffalo on our way to the park!

We've seen quite a bit of wildlife in the past two days - lizards, buffalo, turkeys, antelope, deer, chipmunks, squirrels, and small children.

We ate dinner at the very rustic looking place right next door to our B&B. The food was awesome. Travis ate rocky mountain oysters. Yep, that's right. First bugs, now balls.

Pics

Pictures

Pics from yesterday can be seen here:
http://photobucket.com/rachelandtravis

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Flight and Day One


We made it! And no - I did not completely flip out on the plane (pharmaceutical advances made it all possible). We got to Las Vegas around 11:30pm pacific time, rented our Prius (we are oh so trendy and earth-savvy), and spent the night at a hotel near the airport.

This morning, we woke up EARLY and headed out to Zion National Park. We had perfect weather for the first part of the day. It was only around 80 degrees, and skies were clear. We hiked the 2.5 miles up to Angel's Landing, which was absolutely beautiful, although the three foot path with 1000 foot drops on each side was a little bit nerve-wracking. While sitting at the top, a little chipmunk jumped into my lap, begging for food. So cute.

As soon as we made it down from Angel's Landing, a storm blew in, and we ended up leaving a little bit earlier than we had expected. We might try to go back tomorrow if we have time because Travis really wanted to see the Emerald Pools.

We are staying in Glendale, UT at a little place called The Historic Smith Hotel Bed and Breakfast. It's a really cute little place in the middle of nowhere, and we have a front porch balcony where birds are nesting. It's really cute. We will be here for 3 nights as we travel to Bryce Canyon tomorrow and the North rim of the Grand Canyon on Friday.

It is freezing cold right now (apparently it's snowing in Northern Utah), but we are having a great time so far! I will try to get some pics up ASAP.

Tuesday, May 27, 2008