The Grand Canyon

Free breakfast began at 6 a.m. at our hotel this morning. We were there at 6:20, sharing the dining room with a huge bus full of Japanese tourists. And to think we thought we would be some of the only ones there that early! I guess they were all getting an early start as well.

We were ready and hitting the road by a little bit after 8:00 a.m. Before leaving, though, we did take a few pics of the view from our hotel. (Not our room. Our room had no view.)

Page and surrounding area seems like it might be worth visiting, but I'm not sure we'll ever be back. If we had more than seven days for our trip, perhaps we would've spent half a day exploring there!

A few hours later, we were pulling into Grand Canyon National Park.

Nora slept the ENTIRE way. She literally fell asleep two minutes after we pulled out of the hotel parking lot, and was still catching flies when we pulled into the park.

Sweet girl.

Our first stop within the park was at the watchtower, which also provides the first overlook to see the canyon.

While Michael got out to get the lay of the land, I sat in the car with a sleeping Nora for a bit longer. Soon, she woke up, so we got out of the car to join him.

You could climb the watchtower for a slightly more elevated view.

We continued driving and stopped at another overlook to see the canyon in all of its glory.

Nora was in a great mood, thanks to her fantastic nap.

We met a young father who had a baby about Nora's age at home. He was traveling with his dad and some other guys for a little getaway. After he and his dad talked to Michael for a few minutes about babies, they took a family pic for us:

We eventually made our way to Grand Canyon Village, and to our accommodations at Yavapai Lodge. However, when we tried to check in, we were told that the room wasn't ready yet, and to check back after 4 p.m. (it was noon). Bummer.

We killed some time by having some lunch at the Yavapai Cafe, then took one of the free shuttles to the rim of the canyon.

After walking along the rim for a bit and getting our bearings, Nora fell asleep and we decided to walk back to our lodge, rather than take the shuttle. It was nice out, and the walk was slightly less than a mile.

Once back at the lodge, we were allowed to check in. Thankfully, we were pleasantly surprised--the room is GREAT! It's obviously been recently remodeled, freshly painted, and it's very clean. It's way better than you would expect for a place that is essentially in the middle of the woods.

Look at Nora Noo--love her! One of the bonuses of this vacation has been the CLOTHES! It's so fun to break out some of Nora's warmer weather outfits. I mean, c'mon--how cute are baby capri pants?!

We relaxed in our room for a while, playing with Nora, who was being hilarious and so much fun. Once it was time for dinner, we caught a shuttle to the rim again, and ate at Bright Angel Restaurant. After our meal, we took a few minutes to take a couple more photos before heading back to our room for the night:

On the shuttle ride back to the lodge, we saw a TON of elk. They were seemingly everywhere! At one point, there was a HUGE one standing right next to the bus, but when I took a picture, there was a huge glare from the lights inside the bus. Boo! So, this pic will have to do:

Tomorrow should be really nice... we're not driving anywhere! For the first time since we arrived out here, we'll be staying put in one place for more than 24 hours. We're ready for the break!