We headed out from Vegas the morning of the 14th, first stopping to get some necessities – food and liquor:) . We opted for the ½ gallon of Captain and some vanilla coke. Then we were on our way for the 5 hour drive to the Grand Canyon (stopping only to view the Hoover dam). Morgan had only been there once, as a boy scout. I was only there with the Brady Bunch on tv. Needless to say, we were both very much looking forward to it.
Safe and sound, we arrived at our campsite. Home-sweet-home for the next 3 days. We quickly got the tent set up and took off for our first view from the canyon rim. Now, one wouldn’t think finding a canyon, spanning 277 miles would be hard to find, but surprisingly, to us, it was. Finally, we found the correct trail and soon arrived to see that breathtaking view. Awesome! A PB&J dinner followed by a movie was a perfect end to the day – and of course, what became our nightly routine of Captain & Coke 
(Alia would be so proud).
To say the ground was hard under our tent would be a gross understatement. Morgan even said that sleeping on ice on Mt Rainer was softer! Well, we did survive, though with a few minor injuries – sore backs and bruised hips – luckily that didn’t stop us from enjoying our days hiking both around and into the canyon.
Of course, we were not the only people there enjoying this natural wonder. There were gobs of tourists, from many countries, speaking multiple languages. We were most amused by the ones with the cameras around their necks and video cameras in their hands (you know who I’m talking about!). But to be honest, we did have a total of 3 cameras with us most of the time. Haha. It was hard not to just stare at the view while walking (don’t worry, neither of us fell), and we ended up walking all along the canyon, stopping at all the opportune spots to take a photo (or sometimes 20).
After a long day in the park, showers sounded delightful. We arrived, shower gear in hand, all ready to get clean – only to discover that – they were PAY showers!! Pay for the park, pay for the campsite and still pay for showers. Oh well, we figured we’d just go to dinner a little dirty. For dinner, we decided to venture out in search of food. What we found was a “Spagetti Western”, how exciting (we thought), but sadly, it was just Italian food with Western decorating [i.e. Clint Eastwood posters (written in Spanish) and exchange students dressed in Wranglers].
Our second day’s adventure led us deep into the big ditch, for a 6 mile hike, descending 2,100 vertical feet (yes, afterwards our calves and rumps were sufficiently toned and sore). It was long and hard, but we did it (yay us!). By the end of the hike, we felt we deserved much needed showers. Again, we arrived ready to go, only to discover that they were closed for cleaning. Seriously, how hard can it be for 2 people to get a shower around that place! Thank goodness it wasn’t too long before they were open and we had 8 min to make sure were clean. Both of us got more than we paid for; Morgan timed his and he got double! Guess it was our lucky day after all. All clean, we went for food overlooking the canyon (don’t even ask about the journey there! - for those of you that asked here is the link).
By the end of the trip, Morgan was having back spasms and we learned that we were apparently “long-termers” as we watched every campsite in our view change groups at least once. 
We also learned that after watching 45 minutes of a movie and then NOT turning the car on causes the battery to deplete. And that after asking every camper around, Morgan finally came across the non-English speaking French couple (though we believe French-Canadian since they drove, hehe), the French man wasn’t too sure about this “jumping” thing and insisted upon reading the Bible-sized-manual. Finally, he came across the battery section and he hooked up the black and red clamps. Within seconds, the van was purring like the Fowler’s cat Fluffy and we made it out of the park… with a few side detours to see more portions of the Grand Canyon on the way out. It was a “Grand” time.
Until Moab…
