Day Four: "It's Monsoon Season"

The internet system is down at the hotel so I'm posting a little late. I wrote this on Tuesday night, so the Todays/Yesterdays may be off. I'm in a rush to get out so some of the names of hotels/lodges and locations inside of the park need editing but I'm not editing them yet. 

You know, whenever we told anyone that we were going to Arizona, their typical responses were comments about the weather, how hot it would be, were we crazy, etc. Ever since we’ve gotten here, we’ve had locals tell us “Well, you came during monsoon season.”

 

Monsoon season, you know, where it RAINS all the time? Yeah, that monsoon season.

Here’s the good news: It makes for very lovely temperatures. Even though it’s “humid for Arizona”, the humidity just isn’t uncomfortable. Yesterday at Wupatki, it was 90 degrees but the breeze was a cool breeze and we were very comfortable.

The problem with the monsoon season is two-fold:

First, the clouds and storms come in and we can’t see the sights we’re trying to see. Or, worse yet, we can see them, but I can’t get good pictures of them!

Second, SBS hates thunder and lightning. We finally figured out his big problem today. Ever heard of Ratatouille? Yeah, so has SBS. He’s seen it. He saw when the lightning struck and created Lightningy cheese. Everytime it starts up again, SBS starts in with the pouting. LORDIE that boy can POUT. POUT POUT POUT! 

We did our morning routine – today they had scrambled eggs and bacon so MG was very happy to get some bacon. DD likes to get a packet of hot chocolate and prep it with coffee instead of water. Then when it’s half-finished, he refills the coffee.

Once we got the car packed, we headed east to visit another National Monument: Walnut Canyon. This place has a lot of awesome cliff dwellings with a trail that goes right by several of the ruins. Unfortunately, last December, some large boulders fell onto the trail and it will be closed until approximately mid-September. We were able to see the dwellings from a distance but it was a big bummer to have to miss the close up hike.

As we were finishing the trail that was open, the thunder was getting louder and louder. Oh, did I mention all the lightning strikes that Daddy Doc and I “didn’t see”? As in

PM: Did you see that?

DD: Nope, I didn’t see that. I didn’t see the one before it either.

And SBS was getting poutier and poutier. The water started coming down as we were getting into the PerkyMomMobile.

Through the pouring rain, we headed west back through Flagstaff to get to our next destination. We took a small derail to get some Diet Pepsi (I love me the Diet Pepsi,) and we got a few cheese quesadillas to share with everyone.

Guess where we are now??

We arrived at the Grand Canyon around 1:30.

The situation is so interesting. The have a shuttle service, but the park isn’t closed to private cars. We thought we would have to park and use shuttles, but the shuttles are just ‘Optional.’ So there are still a lot of cars in the park but fortunately, that means we still get to bring OUR car into the park.

Our first stop was the Mather turn point, where the pictures above were taken. We parked on the road (the parking lot was full,) and walked towards the lookout points.

Mr. Genius’s reaction as we approached was hysterical. “HOLY CRUD! NO WONDER THEY CALL IT GRAND!” Yes, Mr. Genius. Once again, he was my most impressed child. We took several pictures. Daddy Doc pointed out the canyon floor. We showed the boys the Colorado River. We think we saw Phantom Campgrounds I asked Captain Stubborn if God did a good job on this and he said yeah, but he needs to fix it. There’s a big crack that he needs to fill in.

At this point, I need my mother to divert her eyes from the screen…

At one spot, we were taking pictures and the boys were climbing on some rocks in the area. Now, during our conversation about the crack that God needed to fix, there was a lady listening in and smiling. As the boys were on the rocks, I heard her say under her breath “OH! Don’t let that little boy over there!” I wondered what the heck she meant.

HOLY COW!

There’s a section on this lookout point, with NO GUARDRAIL blocking the edge of the rim. Nothing. No fencing. No railing. NADA. Nothing at all.

I realized that if CS slipped, he’d be going DOWN.

My heart skipped a beat and I got those boys DOWN from that area faster than you could blink.

Now, you have to understand, my kids do NOT play in areas that are not approved areas for playing. They KNOW not to go off the trail. They KNOW to look for the “Don’t go here” signs. There was NOTHING like that in this area. Lots of people were standing on this area to take their pictures. I’m amazed that this area exists unfenced. AMAZED. Thank goodness I heard her and paid attention.

Next we visited the Visitor’s Center to stamp our National Park Passports. (DUH.) They had a special display there about the Junior Ranger program. This park’s program requires children to finish four pages in a booklet and to attend at least one ranger led program. Some of the programs are much more involved than others. I won’t lie. We’re not going for the more complicated program. The great news is that there was a program at 4:00 and it was now 3:00, so we had time to get to it.

The sad news was that my trip down memory lane will be limited. At the giant map at the Visitor’s Center, I remembered that the place we’d visited with my parents was Hopi Point. Don’t ask me why I remember Hopi Point, I just do. Sadly, the road to Hopi Point is completely closed for major renovations and it’s completely closed to visitors.

Can I just say that the Grand Canyon Gift Shop was disappointing? Seriously.

First off – we collect patches. So far, every place we’ve visited has had a patch which ‘matches’ the patches at other locations. In other words, the patches we have for the three monuments we visited so far, are the same size and shape and basic design, with each monument having unique artwork.

Yeah, the Grand Canyon doesn’t have that series of patches. Eventually we found a patch that would work, and really, it’s not THAT important, it was just ODD. I’ve been waiting to buy the boys t-shirts but the GC t-shirt selection is REALLY limited and I don’t like them.

I’m not even wild about the postcard selection.

Ok, so that being said… we went to the 4:00 ranger led class thing and it was cute. The thunder was coming very close so we moved inside the nearby “Shrine of the Ages” to finish the class. The lesson was about pollinators, especially bees, hummingbirds and butterflies.

After that, DaddyDoc was HUNGRY. We’d eaten bites of leftover steak from last night on the way to the ranger thingie, but we never did have a real lunch. But before we could leave the park, I had something I wanted to do: Hopi Point is closed but I was trying to remember where was it that we’d eaten dinner when I’d visited.

Now, another thing is that I had not, until earlier this year, known about the El Tovar Hotel in the Grand Canyon. Ok, that’s on my list now. That would be an awesome place to stay one day. Today’s not that day. But. Maybe we can eat there…

Daddy Doc pulled up to the driveway and I went in. The hostess at the restaurant gave me a card with a phone number to call to see if they have any openings for reservations tomorrow (Wednesday) night. I started to turn away and then I turned back.

“I have another question… Do you have a children’s menu, or do you highly discourage children?”

The hostess answered: Well, we don’t discourage children because we have a menu! And gave it to me.

I asked at the front desk for a house phone. I called, hoping that by some miracle we could get an early enough reservation for my crowd. Guess what? They had 4:30, 5:00 and 8:00 available.

Why, I’ll take that 5:00 reservation, thankyouverymuch!

Next we headed out and I think the place we ate with my parents was the Bright Angel Lodge. I asked DD to keep driving, so I could test my hotel memory of that trip. Sure enough, around the corner from the rim hotels and lodges, we found the Mismak Lodge. The little buildings were exactly what I remember from that trip.

On our way to the hotel, we stopped at the official Grand Canyon National Park sign for the obligatory photo opportunity. Then it was on to the Holiday Inn Express.

First off, I’ll definitely be calling our future Holiday Inns to give them my Priority Club number. At this location, we were put into a lovely “Priority Club” labeled room.

Now, anything I say about this hotel, I’d like you to know, my comments are observations, not complaints. Seriously. We booked this property to keep the Holiday Inn theme going, to get the points, and because a lot of my other options were booked by the time I made these reservations. I really don’t have a lot of complaints about this property. It seems that it’s aging and could use some upgrades.

The room itself is very nice for a 2-diamond property. My agent and I have discussed some of the silly things that can count against a property. There’s no door on the closet area. That is the one thing about this room that I think makes it a 2-diamond and not a 3-diamond. The furnishings are in very good condition, the carpet is clean and bright, and we even have a refrigerator AND a microwave. I’m trying to peek into the regular folk rooms to see if it’s the microwave that sets our room apart.

We had a message when we arrived so I called to retrieve it. It was a LOVELY message from our travel agent! Perky Mommy’s Tickled Moment of the Day! I know I’m easily amused. I really really enjoyed hearing her welcome us to the Grand Canyon!

But… Well…

The internets are dead. They switched ISPs and they’re telling people that they have an IP but it won’t work with their system and they’re trying to get it figured out.

Then, the door lock/key didn’t work. Then it worked. But then after dinner, our keys were dead. Now the keys work, but the TV and the TV remote don’t work. Fortunately, my husband is a techno/gizmo geek so he’s been fixing it for me. 

Good News: We have a sweet HD tv in our room!

There's no drain cover in the bathtub, either. But I asked them to fix that on our way out this morning (morning I'm typing not night before.)

Everyone here is very nice. They’ve directed us to an internet café but it closes at 8:00 pm. I’m going to try to get there in the morning to upload this update. Hey, we have HBO and I got to watch the end of Hairspray – It’s not all bad!

We ate dinner at a little coffee shop next door. You know, it was what it was, HA HA. I think it’s a bit funny that there are so many people AT the Grand Canyon, there are a few hotels, but there doesn’t seem to be that many food options. That’s ok. Mr. Genius ordered prime rib and now he’s really excited to taste the Prime Rib tomorrow/Wednesday night at El Tovar!