The Grand Canyon!!!

While we were driving through AZ on the way to CA, we were talking about how AZ is called "The Grand Canyon state". We talked about how every state has something special, which gived them their nicknames, and the Grand Canyon is what AZ is known for.
We decided that this was the perfect trip to go to the Grand Canyon, since we didn't have Jacob with us (and that was before I saw that there is just a guardrail -not a fence- between the viewing points and the Canyon itself. Also, it was a rare driving trip that did not require us to be home by a specific date. So, after eating lunch with my parents in Hollywood, we left for the next part of our journey.
First of all, our country is FreakingHuge! Mapquest said it would take almost 8 hours, but they obviously didn't account for an eight year old boy with a bladder the size of a marble. So, at 8:30 p.m., we exited the interstate, then began the 54-mile drive north to the Lodge we were staying at on the South Rim. Mapquest also didn'taccount for the 35-40 mph speed limit, which you can only do during daylight hours. At night, the road is pitch-black, with signs every 1/2 mile thatsay "Watch for Elk." And they weren't kidding... a female elk ran out infront of us, and we avoided meeting personally by about three feet. Needless to say, my heart was going a million beats a minute, but I slowed down to about 25 mph. So at 10:00 p.m. we pulled into the parking lot, got to our room, and discovered that the hotel did not have air conditioning!(They were nice enough to mount an oscillating fan on the wall...) We woke up the next morning, and went to see the IMAX movie of the Grand Canyon. Itwas awesome, and air conditioned.. After the movie, we went to see the real thing. It was hot already- at 10:30 a.m., and let's just say that my kids are not exactly hikers. We stopped at the first point of the rim, and thekids were oohing and ahhing like everyone else. When we got to the next point, Matthew found a rock that he decided he wanted to throw into the Canyon. Megan wasn't so sure. "Matthew, if you throw that rock in there,you might change everything, then other people won't be able to enjoy the same thing we see." (Spoken like a girl that just heard a conservation talkat the Ft. Worth Zoo several weeks ago.) After I assured her that the Grand Canyon had been there for at least 4000 years, and that Matthew throwing a rock in it would not change a thing, she decided that it would be okay forhim to throw a "small" rock in. Literally 15 seconds after he threw therock, which barely made it past the trees, they decided that they had seen enough! After seeing the movie, which included river-rafting, an airplane trip through the canyon, and where they were cool and seated, the real thing didn't do much for them after the first impression. Leave it to my kids to be barely impressed by one of the 7 Natural Wonders of the World! (They did want to make sure I took lots of pictures, though.) After a trip to the gift shop, we left to get lunch, and head back to Scottsdale. We got to Scottsdale, and as soon as possible, they went swimming with their cousin-- for two hours!The next day, we left AZ and got home at 11:00 that night. I would have been home sooner, but the last 90 miles or so was a dark road with many, many deer alongside it. Since I was successful at avoiding the elk, I decided that it would be best to keep all other game off my suburban (although Ithink I did hit a rabbit) :(