The Last Stop

We drove through Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona. I would love to tell you all about those states, except I mostly slept through it all. I'm like a baby that way: put me in a car, and I end up with my head tilted back and mouth wide open. Many a person has taken a picture of me like that, hoping to blackmail me or something. Hey, I freely admit that I have a lot of cavities in my mouth.

In my grogginess, I did notice that New Mexicans really like their Harley Davidson's. And spicy Mexican food (is there any other kind?). But not their helmets and apparently their lives. They must also like the strange weather combination of 100 degree heat with lightning and rain. The kids watched the lightning, entranced with natural fireworks which don't emit huge quantities of sulfates and nitric oxides into our already smog-filled air every single night.

But enough about Disneyland.

After a whole lot of dead bugs on the windshield and chicken nuggets, we were there.
It was more gorgeous than I remembered. Probably because this time there were four additional little gorgeous things added to the scenery (one not pictured).
My big monkey took his two little monkeys climbing (can you see them?) while I sat with the little ones staring at the tourists.
There were a ton of tourists. Traveling through Utah and Colorado, I had forgotten what they look like. Really, what gave them away, besides their foreign yabbering or saris, were their license plates. We now have an official checklist of license plates seen, sort of like how birdwatchers check off birds that they've seen, but only if the birds are in their natural habitat and not in a zoo.

And here I always thought those birdwatching lists were lame.

The license plate watching kept the kids occupied and enthused for a long time.The furthest one we saw was from Canada.
We decided to stay inside the park so that we would waste no time checking out more of the Canyon the next morning. We took the last room available, which was smaller than my old dorm room. With only 1 bed. For all 6 of us.

Luckily, the kids are still short, so we turned everyone sideways. The next morning, the 3 older kids were asleep all squished together while the baby was sleeping horizontally.

No sympathy from me, though. At least they got a bed.
Ironically, we paid twice as much for this hotel room as we did for any of the suites we stayed in with a separate room and two beds.
After waving good-bye to all the dead animal heads in the hotel lobby and eating exactly 3 bites of breakfast each, the kids set off for more hiking. Fortunately for me Unfortunately, the baby was still cranky from his cold and refused to walk, so the two of us set out for bus rides instead.

There were lots of good views to be seen from the bus. And really, one vista is pretty much the same as another.
Good-bye, breathtaking Grand Canyon. We had fun looking at you and your license plates. People sure do come from all over to check you out. Don't blame them, but thank goodness we didn't have to travel from, say, Canada. We enjoyed the hiking, at least I think the husband and kids did. Me and the baby enjoyed your bus rides. Thank you so very much for installing air conditioning on the buses, unlike that other park Zion. We might be back sometime this year, annual pass and all. We'll even bring a grandma or friend, we liked you that much.

Thanks for entertaining the kids. And for making us all think about God a little more.