Grand Canyon - Sunday

Sunday was a short day, due to having to catch a 6:50 flight out of Phoenix. We made it to the Grand Canyon around 9:30-10ish. We parked near Mather Point and hopped the shuttle to the South Kaibab trailhead. Given how sore we were and how little time we had, we decided to just go to Ooh Aah Point for the view and head to the gift shop. I would like to say that the hike was uneventful, but I slipped and busted my ass within 2 minutes of starting out. The trail was very sandy and I was slipping all over the place. Since this was supposed to be an easy hike, we both were wearing out sandals (Chacos). Mine didn't have much traction. Jim put my water and gatoraide bottles in his backpack. That improved my situation a bit, but I was still slipping. So, I do the only logical thing and started to run. I would run a couple of lengths and wait for Jim to catch up or stop when I ran into other people. It was fun and I stopped slipping. We finally made it down to Ooh Aah point. It is called Ooh Aah point for a reason. You know there is going to be a good view, but you can't imagine the magnificence of it until you experience it. The canyon wall ends on one side and you can see both the east and west sides of the canyon. It was incredible. There are rocks that jut out. We sat on the rocks for a while and took in the view. It was here that we saw what we had hoped to see the entire weekend. California Condors. There was a group of 4 of them flying above us and they were soon joined by a 5th as the exited the canyon. We hiked back up to the top.

We jumped on the shuttle and got off at Yaki Point and Pipe Creek Vista. Both of these had good views. (Is there a bad view of the Grand Canyon??) From Pipe Creek Vista we took the 1.5 mile hike along the Rim 'Trail'. It really isn't a trail, but a 5 ft wide asphalt sidewalk that runs along the side of the rim. This took us back to where we were parked and near one of the shops and info center. We went into the shop. I bought a vegetarian southwestern cookbook. It really was a book store and didn't have much in the way of souvenirs. We left the bookstore and Jim read all the information kiosks while I sat in the shade and drank lots of water. We then boogied out and made the drive back to Phoenix. We hit a thunderstorm just south of Sedona which caused us to slow down quite a bit.

Do you know what I like best about the Phoenix airport? Carvel ice cream. This was a staple of mine growing up in New York. The Phoenix airport is the only place I have run into one since I left in 1985. They have locations in Texas now, but not in Austin. I always get a chocolate cone with chocolate sprinkles. They take the cone (sugar cone) and roll the ice cream in the sprinkles. The people at the airport thought I was nuts when I described the process of getting sprinkles on ice cream that is already on a cone, so I just get it in a cup and let them pour the sprinkles on instead. This time I got one, but they were out of chocolate sprinkles, so I just had plain ice cream. It was still good anyway.

This weekend I'm going to try to take it easy. I'm taking Mav to agility practice Saturday morning and I'm going to the hash on Sunday. At some point, we'll be heading over to Chon Som so Jim can finish some electrical wiring he is doing.

I'm also participating in the Marathon Relay on July 4th. I've put together a team of people that run much faster than me. T-Rex, Sphincter Blinker, C'em Cummin, Beaver Cleaver, and myself. Our team name is Powered by Guinness. Keep your fingers crossed that nobody gets injured at the hash this weekend!

Have a great weekend everyone!