The Grand Canyon is BEAUTIFUL and Very, Very, BIG.

On Monday, we drove from Lake Powell/Page down to Williams and checked into the Grand Canyon Railway Hotel.  It's about 65 miles south of the south rim of the canyon.  We splurged to buy a two night package deal that included the hotel, 2 breakfasts and 2 dinners, the round trip train trip to the canyon, and a bus tour.  We took that train up to the canyon on Tuesday. The bus just drove us out to two scenic overlooks and let us stare at the canyon for about half an hour at each one.  Then we had about another 90 minutes to do what we wanted.  We had lunch in the historic El Tovar Hotel on the rim, went to one of the visitor's centers for my stamp, and generally just ogled the canyon some more. Unfortunately, it started to rain pretty hard, so we spent the last 20 minutes or so just siting in the train depot waiting to board.  Although our time at the canyon was short, it was spectacular!

Yesterday we hit three fascinating sites:  the Meteor Crater, Sunset Crater National Park, and the Lowell Observatory.  We got to the Lowell at 5 p.m. without realizing it was a two hour walking tour and a long movie.  We watched half an hour of the movie about building a big new telescope at their other campus.  We were so tired and hungry by then that we didn't even walk through their little museum area.

Today is our last day of touring.  We are going to visit the Pioneer Museum here in Flagstaff.  Just after lunch we will drive about 140 miles south back to Phoenix.  Our biggest job today is going to be repacking!  Yikes.  We bought some souvenirs, although not a lot and nothing too big.  We need to empty out the rental car and try to get everything organized and into the two suitcases.  Should be a highlight of the trip!  LOL!

I'm quite unsure of what has happened to my weight.  My plan had been to eat small breakfasts at the hotel breakfast areas, then lunch at Subway and dinner at Denny's.  We certainly did that, but last night as we ate dinner at Denny's, we realized we had only had a Denny's dinner 8 of the 16 nights in Arizona.  It's less than half the time if you count the two weeks in California.  Each time we had a dinner somewhere else, it was a special restaurant or special reason.  They were all delicious, and I tried to make some decent choices when I did it.  Breakfast was reasonable most days, and lunch was often at Subway even if dinner was somewhere else.  There has certainly been a lot of walking, some days more than others.  I had hoped to stay the same, so Saturday morning I will get on the scale and report the results.  My clothes have never felt loose and sometimes they felt tight.  I can never judge for myself what is happening with my body.  That's why I need that scale!

Enjoy some pictures of the Grand Canyon, Meteor Crater, the amazing lava flows at Sunset Crater, and Lowell Observatory.

We had a "train robbery" on the way back from the canyon.

At the Meteor Crater, which hit 50,000 years ago.

Now they have an Astronaut Wall of Fame because astronauts trained down in the crater.  Mark had fun pointing out people he worked with or ran into or just famous astronauts.

This photo does NOT do justice to the huge wall of lava flowing down the mountain. 

Walking through the lava and the base of a cinder cone.

We were surprised to find out he was buried right here on Mars Hill.  His wife paid twice as much for this mausoleum than it cost to build the telescope!

Lowell's telescope that he used to study Mars.

Pluto was discovered with this telescope by an unpaid intern!  He gave it the PL designation in honor of Percival Lowell, who had died several years before the discovery.  A contest was held to name the new planet. The winner, Pluto, was suggested by a schoolgirl. It helped that it started with PL!