GCT 3 - winds
Turned out the smoky hotel room we got last minute was a rip off. No alarm clock, cracking walls, too-soft pillows. Some of the lights in the room didn't even work. Truly dissatisfied. The only thing I liked about it was that the bed was king-sized.
We set out in the morning with rolls, bananas, cold pizza, and chocolate milk as our breakfast. The chocolate milk was great, but the packaging was terrible, especially the straw. Pretty leaky, and hard to sip the beverage.
So we departed from Flagstaff, Arizona, to the Grand Canyon South Rim. Except our GPS refused to cooperate and my parents were just leading us in circles. Finally, we found a suitable route and the rest of the drive I slept pretty soundly.
First stop: Mather Point. This was our first view of the Grand Canyon and it was, I have to admit, pretty spectacular. Canyons in canyons in canyons. Red and purple and brown and blue all painted across the landscape. Unfortunately, last night when I was sleeping, my brain was playing tricks on me and I had the feeling of falling in my half-sleep, half-wake stage. So today I had a deathly fear of the edge, unlike yesterday. I really couldn't stand to be near the edge as much as Walnut Canyon.
I stopped to tie my shoe and drink a few sips of water and suddenly, a powerful gust of wind just blew my cap straight off my head. I was expecting the railing to catch it but it just slipped under and fell down into the ravine. Oh great. What a wonderful way to begin my hike.
My sister and I stopped in the bathroom to wash our hands. The hand dryer in there blew so hard that the skin on the back of my hand rippled. Because we'd been watching Baccano recently, I began to scream, "I'm being devoured! Ahhh!" (We were alone at the time, because two old ladies just exited.) Apparently we were really loud, because my brother told me that the two old ladies that just left stared at the bathroom with strange looks as my sister and I were making screaming noises. Hah. Every time I think about it, it makes me laugh.
Our lodge didn't have our room prepared, so we decided to take a shuttle to the different points of interest on the trail.
The height scared me. It seemed that whatever courage I had yesterday had been transfered to my sister, who was extremely bold today. Scary. My brother was grabbing her out of fear that she would topple over the edge.
Hah, my sister also dropped a full water bottle by the way. We were watching 2 lizards fight and it just happened.
As we took the shuttle from place to place, there happened to be another Chinese family there too: a mother, a father, a son, and a pair of grandparents. The mother seemed to be the pushy one, wanting the family to see everything; the father, a pushover. The son was just excited; the grandma was also somewhat excited. The grandfather just pretty much sat there with a blank look on his face. Unfortunately, I have to say the mother was pretty loud and made a ruckus.
Ah, my feet are sore and I'm beginning to get hungry. Ciao, and have fun. I'll be editing the previous posts to add some pictures of the beauty (and terror) of nature.
GCT 4 - hearts
Last night I did have a good meal. There was supposed to be internet in the overpriced cafe, and there was, but it was extremely slow. So slow, in fact, I couldn't even log in to dreamwidth to post an entry because it timed out.
And then we went back to the hotel. I learned how to play hearts (the card game) on the computer by trial and error. I think I still suck though, since I can't exactly grasp the concept of it. Later we watched a movie late into the night.
But last night I couldn't sleep very well. The room was very hot and we turned on both the fans available. But me being me, I had major problems with the environment. First off, I sleep in almost complete silence. Both fans were driving me mad, not to mention my father's snoring. Secondly , I turn a lot in my sleep and because my mother, my sister, and I were sleeping in one queen-sized bed, I had barely enough room to move. And because of all the sights I had seen that day, my dizziness kicked in. All these factors led to a hard-to-sleep night. It was resolved by my dad sleeping on the floor, my mother sleeping where my dad was, so I had extra room to move. Thank God. To block out noise I just slept with the pillow on top of my head.
Today wasn't much... just viewing more and more of the crevice in the ground. Ahh, tired.
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