Grand Canyon

Bethany and I got to visit one of the seven natural wonders of the world for the first time, the Grand Canyon. Upon arriving at our lovely bed and breakfast, with serious emphasis on the breakfast. Our host, Casey, cooked a mad awesome breakfast which included strawberry crepes! But seriously folks, if all you have to do is provide a bed and a breakfast, why not do both well? Casey did both well. We stayed in Williams, AZ which also happened to have some cool Cowboys.

The first night Casey told us how to get to the canyon and what time the sun would be setting. We headed out for our first look at the massive crack in the earth. There were clouds that evening so sunset wasn't that spectacular over the west view of the canyon but our first sights of the natural wonder took our breaths away. It is simply stunning to see! The next day we took lots of pictures along the south rim and then ventured down for about 1.5 miles before we turned around, passing mules and many hardcore hikers. That barely gave us a taste of what it's like to hike the whole thing. We definitely want to go back and maybe try to make the 2 day hike to the hidden Havasu Falls. There is no road that leads to the falls and it is on an Indian reservation. Anyone up for a trip to one of the most photographed water falls in the US?

There is an amazing tourist town set up on the edge of the Grand Canyon with people visiting from all over the world. We ate at a restaurant (the food wasn't special, really it wasn't. I had turkey and cheese on wonder bread for more money than your average all-you-can-eat buffet) but we had a very respectful Chinese waiter who would bow every time he came by our table. I opened the door for an elderly couple and they responded, “Merci” sadly my French failed me and I simply smiled and bowed like my Chinese waiter had taught me. As we walked around the park we noticed that dozens of nationalities seemed to be represented. We saw Germans, Chinese, French, Hindus, Mexicans, and heard plenty of languages being spoken I simply did not recognize.

Bethany and I watched a 30 minute IMAX presentation of the Grand Canyon which was wonderful and awe inspiring. Multilingual translations were provided via headphones to those in need. The movie ended with a quote similar to this, “The transcendent beauty of the canyon causes humans to inwardly rise towards the infinite divine and reach for each other in bonds of peace.” This quote makes everyone feel included except atheists. Pictures really do not do the canyon justice (play the video clip and you will hear my wife's testimony). Even after visiting the canyon for two days and watching a movie about it we still felt we had just scratched the surface of this awesome canyon. It did make our thoughts travel upwards to the creative power of our heavenly Father.