We drove around visiting different viewpoints and obviously took a lot of photos. At one point we were the only people on a large vista... and then a bus pulled up and a ton of Japanese tourists came out!! Two people asked Josh to take photos of them... and then I snapped this photo of some of the group as we left the vista.
Here are some more canyon shots... it definitely started to warm up as the sun came out!
We spotted this watchtower and Josh decided we definitely had to visit it. It's actually 25 miles away from the regular visitor center.
Josh took a photo from one of the windows at the top of the tower, and we took another photo from the watchtower patio.
We ended up spending almost five hours at the Grand Canyon! Also, I'm really glad that we bought our $80 annual park pass; we've visited a total of five National Parks and Monuments so far and would have spent $63 in admissions fees without the pass. We plan on visiting many more so it is definitely well worth it!
From the Grand Canyon we drove to Lake Havasu City, stopping in Kingman to eat a late lunch at a Cracker Barrel (thanks Beba!). We arrived at our host's house and met the interesting family: our host, Lisa; the two men she lives with, Andrew and Wayne; and her niece and nephew, who are 8 and 11.
They also have two other Couch Surfers staying with them this weekend: a couple from France! Marc and Gwendolyn have been traveling around the world in their Land Cruiser for over ten years, with their current trip starting in Argentina two years ago!!! They have a blog (in French) that documents their travels. They plan on traveling more around the USA and then jaunting around Canada and Alaska for another six months, but maybe more. They have a map on the side of their vehicle that shows their routes and the dates.
Lisa has a gorgeous house and Wayne made an amazing dinner of pasta with Italian sausage. Lisa, Andrew, and Wayne have been to Burning Man for two years and told us stories about their adventures... it sounds fantastic, and we are definitely interested in going to that some day; they suggested that everyone should go at least once in their life!
We are spending the night in their retro Airstream camper that is parked next to their house. Wayne and Andrew have taken it apart and refurbished the inside with as much of the original camper as possible, and it's super cozy inside!
My high for today is kind of strange, but it is that Josh and I have had such a great time all day! We have been telling jokes and laughing nonstop, probably because we are exhausted so everything seems extra funny. Either way, it's made for a fantastic day! Josh's high was seeing the Grand Canyon... being there in real life is so different than seeing it in photos or video. My low was not finding a natural food store (or even a Target) in a 100 mile radius of here! Josh's low was getting up so early and having to operate on so little sleep. My "ho" was driving down Route 66... we decided to take "Historic Route 66" instead of the interstate but we were only on it for maybe 5 minutes: the speed limit was 15 MPH and it was very "trashy touristy" with Route 66 Gas and Route 66 Diner. Very disappointing. Josh's "ho" was seeing a moose standing by the side of the road on our way to the Grand Canyon. It was really funny because we decided that he was just hanging out, scaring people; it definitely was terrifying to have the headlights reveal a gigantic moose just a few feet from our car!
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