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Post by Joeli on Jul 10, 2024 12:57:51 GMT -5
7/10 - continued:
The drive through the national forest on the way to Williams is so green and beautiful. What a change in scenery!
Stopped at a scenic overlook about halfway to Williams, the ravines, canyon, trees and mountains are hard to find words for. Hopefully when we get back home I will have some time to add pictures to this thread.
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Post by vtlovedw on Jul 10, 2024 15:46:28 GMT -5
Glad your DS is feeling better! Hope the rest of you stay healthy! Enjoy your trip!
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Post by bwvBound on Jul 10, 2024 18:22:45 GMT -5
Williams, Arizona? So from there you'll ride the Grand Canyon Railway? Nice! We did that for New Years a few years back -- a very pleasant day (in January temps).
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Post by melk on Jul 10, 2024 20:52:29 GMT -5
Glad to hear your DS is feeling better and his illness was short lived. Enjoy the Grand Canyon. It’s incredible!
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Post by Eli's Nana on Jul 11, 2024 13:48:27 GMT -5
Following... Sounds like a wonderful trip!
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Post by Joeli on Jul 11, 2024 17:19:12 GMT -5
Williams, Arizona? So from there you'll ride the Grand Canyon Railway? Nice! We did that for New Years a few years back -- a very pleasant day (in January temps). We are on a motor coach that’s taking us to all of our destinations. We saw the train, and perhaps if we come back another time we would take the train. |
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Post by Joeli on Jul 11, 2024 17:28:47 GMT -5
7/10 - continued: We made our way to Route 66…we got to walk around in Williams and had lunch on our own at this cute diner/pie shop (food was real good). Did some tourist shopping and walking around for about 2 hours before heading to the Grand Canyon. We got a little lesson about Walt and his love of the Grand Canyon, the train at Disneyland and the caboose renamed to the lillibelle named after Lilian. This Train car is now tied to Club 33 in Disneyland… Took the kids to a great lunch, followed by some tourist shopping in Williams. We saw a few people doing a sit down zip line in town. Not for us! Lol We Got to the Kochina lodge hotel on the south rim of the canyon. Had time to shower and then head out for a special private dinner event with Navajo tribesman doing cultural dancing and some history storytelling. 7/11 Opened our blinds this morning and have a great view of the canyon itself. While looking at the canyon we Saw a mule deer outside of our window this morning. We headed for Breakfast at Harvey house Cafe (some cool history around this place tied to the railroad across the country) then onto the bus for a tour from a local guide. So many details can’t even write it down. We were seeing after effects of a prescribed burn from yesterday. Can still smell the smoke, the sunset and sunrise are just amazing or so the pictures I saw showed lol. Stopped at the Grand Canyon Watchtower designed by Maryjane Colter was Amazing to see. Disney was able to get us admission tickets to go in and up to the top overlooking the north canyon. Amazing views (lots of steps at elevation) and not so great if you have a fear of heights. The architecture designed by Mary Colter was a sight to see. scienceviews.com/parks/watchtower.htmlIt’s quite hot, kids are getting tired DW is going to do the next walk while the kids and I stay on the bus. It is a hot 95 degrees… Geological walk along the rim with our guide, great views, our sons loved all the information especially learning about the different rocks, and how old they are. It was about a mile to our hotel. There was actually a pretty good breeze on the rim, enough that we were holding our little ones. No Mary Poppins umbrellas here! We decided at the end of our walk to have lunch at El Tovar. Old rustic cowboy ambiance, DW had a French onion burger, I had a grilled cheese sandwich with truffle fries and the kids got Mac and cheese with fries, and plain spaghetti. Now we are back in the room for showers, relaxing and prepping luggage before dinner tonight at Arizona steakhouse. |
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Post by Joeli on Jul 12, 2024 10:31:35 GMT -5
7/11 - continued:
Dinner at the steakhouse was relaxing, nice, good service and food. We will be making it an early night as we need to have our luggage out by 7 am, eat breakfast and be on the bus by 8am.
7/12
Morning breakfast and off we go. Guides giving some light History about Mary Blair and the artwork in The contemporary with the 5 legged goat, based on a Navajo belief and how some of the art work on the tiles is based on the Navajo culture. And we are off… 3 hours until we arrive in Monument Utah at the Goulding’s lodge. So glad the bus has some kind of WiFi…Wondering what surprise stops we have on the way. Time change from 3 hours behind our normal time to 2 hours…
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Post by MinnieMom on Jul 12, 2024 12:00:42 GMT -5
Sounds like a great trip! Glad DS tummy bug passed fast & hope the massage DW insisted on for you was helpful.
One of my BFFs is out that way this week. She's taking her kids on a cross continental RV trip this summer. They were at Grand Canyon yesterday. Photos were gorgeous.
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Post by reblzmom on Jul 12, 2024 19:10:11 GMT -5
Sounds wonderful! Thanks for sharing. One of these days would love to stay at the El Tovar...
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Post by PirateLinda on Jul 13, 2024 8:30:23 GMT -5
Following..
This trip sounds wonderful. Thanks!!
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Post by Joeli on Jul 13, 2024 10:54:26 GMT -5
7/12 - continued:
Monument valley was absolutely stunning, gorgeous, breathtaking…and speaking of breathtaking very dusty. We were given bandanas to help. Gouldings lodge was great, food was decent, but our lodging was in a modern cabin suite. Enough room for 6 people, 2 queens and a queen sofa bed. We really only had time to sleep in the cabin. We were gathered for a Navajo BBQ under sandstone mountains, with historic teachings and understanding of how the monuments were formed over time, and done history of the tribe. This information was given to us by Dan Heiber who was the Navajo who got the tribes language into the Rosetta Stone. Helen was joined by his two sons who played music for us and taught us a tribal dance. It was awesome but made for a long day. I don’t think we have been awake past 10pm.
Pack up the luggage for it to be picked up by 7am, and for us to eat breakfast to be on the road by 8:30am.
7/13
Had breakfast, and visited the “museum” that had displays from many of the movies that were filmed here. Here are a few, Back to the future III, Wild Wild West, one of the mission impossible movies where Tom cruise rappels off a cliff monument, and Forest Gump…
When we left the lodge driving away the bus pulled over to a scenic lookout and they put together a “film” using a few of us for parts (myself included) and everyone else as extras. We recreated the scene from Forest gump where he’s running down the road, with the scenic monuments in the background, and “Forest gump” stops, and I say “quiet, quiet he’s going to say something” and he says something like it’s time to go home, I’m done running, and the other actor says “now what are we supposed to do”. It was so much fun to do. Can’t wait to see all the pictures and video the tour guides have taken, when we get home.
We continue On our way to Moab, Utah for some River rafting in the Colorado River!
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Post by melk on Jul 13, 2024 12:13:59 GMT -5
I love that you recreated the Forrest Gump scene, sounds like fun. I was interested to see what you thought of Monument Valley. We found it to be so unusual and beautiful. We booked a jeep tour with a Navajo guide and he was so fascinating. A real highlight of our trip.
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Post by Joeli on Jul 13, 2024 18:59:47 GMT -5
7/13 - continued
Beautiful scenery in Moab. I know some of the people in the group are doing UTV’ing and horseback riding. We will be staying at Red Cliffs Lodge for the next 2 days. The river looks amazing as we drive over to the hotel. Having a group lunch at the hotel.
We are heading out to go RIVER RAFTING, WOO HOO! We picked up Chums for our prescription sunglasses and a waterproof floating pouch for one of our phones.
ABD provided us with water bottles and we filled them with ice at the pool area before we left. They had a canister of water that we filled as needed. Rafting down the river was so much fun, the kids loved it. DW and both boys jumped in the water a few times and had a blast. Water was probably about 60 degrees but as soon as you were out you were dry. Mountains on both sides of the river while rafting was amazing. History by the rafting guide was great as well. The area we were rafting were level 2 rapids at worst. 1 person out of the 8 of us fell in involuntarily, caught her by surprise. She was a sport, part of the experience. By the way our kids didn’t mention iPads one time on this adventure!
Tonight it is a kids party with the tour guides while DW and I have a nice dinner together!
Another early morning tomorrow, breakfast at 6:30 so that we can get on the bus to get to Arch’s state park before it gets super hot. I am definitely finding the get up early thing tough. I understand as you try to squeeze in what you can….i am so glad I took an extra day off at the end of this after we are home so I can actually relax! lol
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Post by Joeli on Jul 13, 2024 19:04:01 GMT -5
I love that you recreated the Forrest Gump scene, sounds like fun. I was interested to see what you thought of Monument Valley. We found it to be so unusual and beautiful. We booked a jeep tour with a Navajo guide and he was so fascinating. A real highlight of our trip. We loved monument valley as well! ABD had booked us open air trucks (covered) fit about 16 people or so, I think. Not only did we get the details about the sandstone monuments, but they took us into a Navajo native hut “hogan” where an old woman was demonstrating to us how they make yarn for weaving, and the history of her grandparents, etc…the cultural exposure for the entire family was amazing. |
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