We are on a family vacation to the South West -- Zion, Grand Canyon, Sedona, and Las Vegas with some short stops in between. It is the first trip to the South West for our grandchildren.
Hope and Nancy are pictured taking a mule back ride at Zion; this was their high point of the day. The rest of us retired to a nice warm museum and watched a short film about the very area the girls were experiencing.
None of us older and wiser folk wanted to ride a mule down into the Grand Canyon and this ride was our compromise. "Keep your hooves firmly planted on level ground" we all said.
We - Larry and I - had first gone to the Grand Canyon 20 years ago, to celebrate my 50th birthday. I was astounded. I couldn't believe my eyes! We hiked a short ways down and back up again; we went to the rim at dawn, we took a helicopter ride. It was an incredible experience I looked forward to repeating.
What I got was a disappointment. The air was hazy -- from a forest fire north of the rim -- and the canyon painted in greys and blues. It looked like a painted backdrop.