Grand Canyon National Park

On Sunday we drove from Farmington, New Mexico (where we spent the night) to see the Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona.  It was about a five hour drive to the South Rim.  We had originally wanted to walk along the Skywalk but we learned that it is a five hour drive from the park entrance and that it cost $80.00 each!  We decided to stay at the South Rim instead.  It was unbelievably crowded (I may or may not have had a small meltdown trying to find a parking spot) but we were able to have lunch and see a viewpoint near the Grand Canyon Village.

It is very impressive (almost worth all of the trouble we had getting a parking spot).  We ended up going on the Desert View Drive on our way out of the park and we were able to stop at every viewpoint.  We should have done this to start with!

It was a little bit stressful at first to visit the Grand Canyon but it ended up being a good day.  Go here for more information.

Note: While we were driving through Arizona I noticed a sign for the city of Winslow.  Marilyn and I got really excited and asked Sean to pose on a corner.

He thought we were crazy until we played him "Take It Easy" by the Eagles.

Four Corners Monument

A couple of weeks ago Sean mentioned, completely out of the blue, that he wanted to visit the Four Corners Monument where Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado meet.  He had learned about it this year while studying U.S. geography and knew all kinds of interesting facts.  He mentioned it several times and, being someone who is always up for an adventure, I said that we should go there on a weekend road trip and Marilyn agreed.  I'm not entirely sure that I meant it when I said it but Sean definitely thought I meant it and told his parents that Marilyn and I were taking him on a road trip!  How could we disappoint him?  Marilyn and I decided that if we were going to go down south we might as well hit up a few other noteworthy attractions and go over the Fourth of July weekend (when Marilyn had some time off).  We left early Saturday morning (because Sean thinks it is more fun to start on a road trip in the dark) and made it to the monument in about six hours.  It is in the middle of nowhere.  In fact, we made several wrong turns!  It costs $5.00 per person (when we read up on the monument we learned that they only take cash so we were prepared).  You are allowed to take pictures but you have to wait in a line.  We got there at just the right time because after we had taken our pictures, the line stretched out to the parking lot!  Sean wanted a picture of him touching all four states so he did a push-up (his leg is barely in New Mexico).  There are all kinds of stands around the monument selling Native American crafts and they only take cash!  Sean was a little bit disappointed that they had sold out of these beautiful bows and arrows (he's really into archery right now) but he did find a key chain.  There is really not a lot to do here except take your pictures and browse the stalls (we were there less than an hour) but Sean was fascinated.  This was his very favorite part of the trip.  Go here for more information.

Memorial Day Weekend 2016

Memorial Day is the official start of summer so Marilyn and I decided to spend the weekend at Bear Lake.  We had so much fun!

We stayed at the KOA in Garden City and this was our cabin for the weekend.  Both Marilyn and I spent some quality time sitting on the front porch reading.  It was so relaxing!  On Saturday my Mom and Dad drove up and we rented a pontoon boat for the afternoon.  It was so much fun!  My Mom does not like boats and, initially, she didn't want to go with us but she let herself be coaxed on board.  Marilyn is terrified of water and doesn't know how to swim but she eventually drove the boat.  I'm telling you, it was so much fun being out on the water and the weather was absolutely perfect!

On Sunday Marilyn and I spent the day at the beach.  We drove to Bear Lake State Park in Idaho because it was a little bit out of the way so it wasn't very crowded.  We ended up at North Beach and we basically sat on the beach and read.  It was fabulous!

This was such a wonderful start to the summer!