The Grand Canyon

Since MC and I are history majors and not geography majors we decided that since we were in California already we should go see the Grand Canyon.

Now in theory this was a great plan. Right up until we realized it was 8 hours away. Not to worry. We already rented a car and had a plan. We were doing it.

So we left LA about 6pm, with a stop at Chick-Fil-A, and made the journey to Arizona to see the Grand Canyon.

We decided to stay in Flagstaff. And by stay in Flagstaff I mean we arrived at 3am and left at noon.

But let's reverse this party train.

LA traffic is horrendous. Insane. We drove along in our sweet rental, facetimed MC's parents (she facetimed, I drove), listened to some jams and then stopped somewhere in the middle of California for some road trip essentials.

I wrote a post a while back about road tripping. This one and this one. MC was a part of one of those.

We got some cold weather clothes, because hello northern Arizona is not warm, snacks, and the most important piece of the puzzle -- an auxiliary cord --.

Now that we had snacks, jams, and a long sleeve shirt we were ready to drive in the rain, wind, and dark to go see "that giant hole in the ground" as both our dads said.

We rolled into our lovely hotel at 3am and asked for late check out. The guy so kindly let us check out at noon. K. Thanks for nothing....

We were up and at 'em at the rousing hour of noon (okay fine you caught me I was up about 6 but I knew MC would murder me if I woke her up) and set out to see the Grand Canyon.

After what felt like eons of driving we finally found it. Or we thought we found it. We found a parking lot. Much confusion and map consulting later we established we were in the correct place and got on a bus to see the foggy views.

 Oh my word, the Grand Canyon is spectacular. Absolutely breathtaking. The fog would clear and we would be left with these beautiful views of the canyon. Complete with rainbows.

One of the bus drivers told us a secret and that was we could take our car to go see the other side of the canyon. We could be on our own time and stop when we felt it was necessary. That is the way to go folks. The way to go.

MC and I traipsed, cartwheeled, and jumped fences all around the canyon trying to see the most that we could see. Taking it all in one day is tough to do, but it was definitely worth it to take a detour and see the canyon. If I were to go again I would book a room to stay there and be able to see the sunrise and set over the canyon.

We did get some killer sunsets on the way back to California. Yes on our way back to California. Gina so graciously offered us a place to stay for the night while we tried to figure out what our next step was going to be.

Turns out sitting in the outdoor mall in LA leads one to Hawaii. I think it was a solid choice on our part. Not a bad consolation prize for not getting to Australia.

MC and I made a pact to really figure out how to get to Australia and plan it out. Sealed our promise with a cheers with our free beers while on our flight to Honolulu.