Spring break 2019: Grand Canyon and Phoenix, Arizona

Well, we barely had any snow by Christmas.  But this is what it looked like in March 2019.  

A day off school one week because of extreme cold, and a day off with a blizzard the next week meant thorough room cleaning time.  

And Marie is 9, so chores are still fun.  

 Luna is 2 now, so she finally was able to have a sleepover with Marie.  She spent much more time indoors this winter.  

Marie and Luke learned to ski, and loved it.  I was complaining about how much it cost.  And Marie said "well 

I wore those old ski goggles from the 1900's."  

Yes, they were Chris' ski goggle from college in 1998.  

Luckily during this snowy winter, we had a week-long spring break on Fargo's school calendar.  We left 2 days earlier than planned due to, of course, a blizzard.  You can outrun a blizzard, but you can't outrun the stomach flu!

The car rental lot was absolutely empty of vehicles.  We had to wait almost 90 minutes for our van.  

There was sun and no snow: we didn't care.  

Luke was finally ready for some plain noodles.  We found a wonderful, last-minute deal on a big condo in Sedona since we left earlier than planned.  

Luke wasn't yet ready for hiking.  SEDONA=CARS movie to us.  Beautiful starter-hike.  

Then off to the Grand Canyon.  Much colder in the mountains.  

Hey book clubbers that have read Outlander!  This rock group reminded me so much of the witch-rock things that made Claire go back in time.  We tried multiple times and it didn't work.  

Photo op to see how close they could get to this bird.  

I saw one couple walk up and get a room at the Bright Angel Lodge, but others were turned away.  I reserved two of these rooms, right on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, 13 mos prior.  Small little rooms, no TV, mostly no wifi. Teenagers and mom in one room, dad and the other two in another. I adored this place. 

This was the view in the morning, 75 feet from our door.  

We had not yet been to a park with shuttles.  It was terrific because those of us who like to hike for hours and hours could do so, and others could hop on the shuttle and head back to the room or another location.  This shuttle was the hiker's express to South Kaibab Trail.  

The start of the trail is icy.  But South Kaibab was much less icy than Bright Angel trail, and these are the two trails that go down into the canyon from the South Rim.

And yes, you walk along cliffs.  Please check out the video of Chris hiking this trail.  I thought he was going to throw-up.  Luke, Marie and Chris hiked to the far point in the sun, Ooh Aah Point.  

And then Luke, Marie and Chris turned around and headed back up and took the shuttle back.  

Mwahahahah.  Eva and I tricked Travis into continuing on with us, 3 miles into the canyon.  The bottom of the canyon is just over 6 miles, so this was about 1/2 way.  Grand Canyon hiking is very sneaky because you hike down before up.  Up was a very humbling experience.  Almost 2000 feet elevation change on this hike.   Reportedly, they now place a ranger at around the 1 mile mark all summer to check people's supplies, footwear, etc and tell them to turn around if they are in flip-flops or something. Once you turn around to head back up, it is a very different experience.  I can only imagine the emergencies in 100+ degrees that happen.  

This is where I gave a drone flying around the middle finger.  The teenagers were horrified.  I saw "NO DRONE ZONE" signs around often, and I wasn't even looking for them. And I had already seen this same young adult climbing on a tree with a "re-vegetation area, no walking/climbing" sign.  It's completely possible that he just didn't know drones weren't allowed.  But I made sure the ranger knew where he was so that he could be informed.  I was frightened for a few minutes that said-young-adult would come push me off the cliff.  

Half way.  Skeleton point.  As you can see by what we're wearing and the lack of snow, it gets warmer as you travel down into the canyon.  

Refueling to ascend.  That darn Eva beat me back up!?!?!  She would not let me pass her!

While we were hiking, Chris and the kids did some non-cliff exploring and visited the mules that people take to bottom/top of canyon.  In fact, even scarier than the cliffs, or the drone-dude pushing me off the cliffs, was the moment the wrangler had us walk BEHIND 8 mules in a line on the trail.  The mules line up on the edge of the cliff and the three of us walked right behind them on the wall side.  I held my breath, waiting for a kick.   

These three were well-rested. So I  thought we should at least go down part of Bright Angel trail, since it was right out our door.  The sky-blue line drawn on the edge of the cliff shows the icy, wet, slippery trail we walked to get to this point: We didn't make it far.  And where was it the most slippery/icy/wet? Where the water melts over the edge of the steepest cliffs of course! 

 We found out on this trip that the bottom of Luke's shoes were as smooth as a table.  He says "I slide my feet for brakes on my bike!"  I never really noticed this, until we were walking on slippery cliffs.  

Well-deserved burgers and beverages at the Harvey House restaurant in Bright Angel.  

We did a couple days Erika-style and another week in a rented house, teenager/Chris-style.  It was very relaxing.

The house was beautiful.  

Eva turned 16 while we were there!

Luke's stomach flu was gone, and I was determined to travel at his snail's pace and have him climb Camelback with us.  He was the first one up Little Devil's Tower in the Black Hills when we went.  But a case of the 5th-grade-lazies made me finally leave him on the side of Camelback.  He made it about 2/3 of the way up.  He sat there and waited for us to come down.

NOT HOT was the key to getting this crew to the top.  

Sunny, but cool.  Luke and Marie had both gotten Camelback water backpacks from the Easter Bunny last year.  One of them drank the ENTIRE THING even though it wasn't hot and they weren't sweating.  This resulted in an almost emotional breakdown, which was avoided by urinating on the trail.  

I'm not sure why, but Chris loved this hike up Camelback!?!?  It is true that you could only fall 10-15 feet max on Camelback instead of to your death like the Grand Canyon; Guessing that had something to do with it.  

Ugly hiking hat: Check.  

The last and final time you'll see Travis hiking....perhaps for the rest of his life.  

The adorable park that we had a picnic in after our hike.  

An afternoon spent at Castles and Coasters.  

This was the time Marie decided big rides were thrilling instead of  scary.  Travis was happy to have a partner finally!

No one was getting tricked into hiking anywhere again except this doughnut shop.  Every morning.  6 doughnuts for $5!?!?  How could we not all get one?!

Although Eva did hike with me two more times.  This was Piestewa peak.  Very challenging with about a 1200' change in elevation in a very short distance.  Chris would not have liked this one.  I beat her up this one though on our last day.  

I did not want to pay $70 and go horse riding again.  But no one else was in Marie's "group ride," so I went along.  It was lovely and beautiful and we were able to see wild horses in the distance.  

My horse was VERY tall, just like me!  He did not follow my kicks or rein guidance and walked me right through a bush a few times.  The horse immediately listened to our guide though who told him to get out of there!

I hiked every day.  Chris golfed most days (once with Luke.) The kids got doughnuts every day.  Perfect vacation.  

One of our favorite things to do was have 

backyard battleship wars.  

Travis and Eva walked to the grocery store the last day of vacation to get what Travis called "transition snacks."  You know, to transition from non-bootleg (brand name) food we ate on vacation back to healthy food.