The 'Big Canyon' Road Trip

After our wonderful trip to Florida, Patrick and I decided that we also needed to make sure we went on a family vacation too, and since Patrick needed to use one of his weeks of leave we set out on a Road Trip. We decided to go to the Grand Canyon (or, the "Big Canyon" as the girls called it) and then visit Patrick's sister in New Mexico. Yes, it was a lot of driving but we got to see a lot of the Southwest. We lovingly referred to this trip as our "Cars" vacation. Any of you who have seen the movie "Cars," a movie which our girls love, will basically see what we saw. In fact, every time the girls saw a deisel they yelled out "Mac, Mac." (The name of one of the trucks in the movie.)

Of course, to make this a true road trip experience we stopped at some of the roadside attractions, which were plentiful, considering that we took I-40 most of the way and as some of you may know, I-40 replaced Route 66. Once we realized that we just had to stop in some of those cities mentioned in the song. (Namely Kingman AZ, and Gallup NM.) It was a lot of fun to see what traveling would have been like 50, 60, even 70 years ago. After that, we thought we'd add a little international flair, so we stopped at the London Bridge! Yes, the London Bridge is in the middle of the desert in Lake Havasu City, AZ. Who would have thought!

The two days we stayed at the Grand Canyon were really a treat, and not just to be out of the car. I had never been to the Grand Canyon, but thought I knew what to expect. But instead I was just awed by how big and beautiful it is. I really wished we could have hiked more and maybe even gone on a mule trip down to the bottom, but with two toddlers in tow you really can't do that. We're lucky they hiked the rim trail with us. They did a good job, but had to take a nap after that, they were beat!

We really had a nice time, and Abby and Erin did such a good job in the car. It really was a bonding experience for our family. Every night at the hotel they would tell me about what they saw and did as I tucked them in. Even now they still talk about "The Big Canyon" and how it was bigger than Abby, bigger than Erin, bigger the Mommy and even bigger than Daddy. I'm so glad we were able to take this trip.