ALIVE, & NOT SO WELL

A few days ago, we made a spontaneous decision to drive to Tucson, and stay overnight with Marc, Chandra, & Laila. It had been several months since we had seen the kids, and our Granddaughter, so, with two days off together, we made the 6 hour drive.

When we arrived, one of the things we discovered was that Laila was saving money for some sort of gizmo thing, and was learning the value of earning money, by actually doing certain chores. What a concept! Maybe we should send a few million welfare recipients to Marc & Chandra's for a lesson in WORK equals pay. With that in mind, we decided that since we had Sami with us, we asked Laila to petsit for the next 24 hrs, which didn't take a lot of persuasion. In addition to playing dressup, and other things, she also did the less glamorous things, like, well, you know, picking up certain stuff. When she got payed the next day, she was only a few dollars short of her goal.

A cool whip spray in the mouth kind of missed the mark.

Laila is wearing her new shirt that Patty brought back from Paris, and her new Navajo Jewelry that we picked up on our recent trip to Cameron.

We had a great, short visit with the kids, and then it was back to the canyon. When we were nearing the National Park, we saw signs of a recent hailstorm, that turned part of the scenery white. By the time I took this picture, we were almost past where the storm had dumped most of the white stuff. The last few days have produced several thunderstorms, and the severe fire conditions have eased a bit. The park has lifted the ban on campfires, so we're all feeling a little more comfortable, now that the monsoon season is upon us.

The downside of the quick trip to Tucson is that I picked up a summer cold, and going back to work with a sore throat, and congestion, was not at the top of my list of things to do. This morning, I'm feeling better, but unfortunately, the inevitability of me passing this to Patty has become a reality. Hopefully, we didn't leave anything behind in Tucson.

BREAKFAST AT THE EL TOVAR

After a week of us both working, finally a day off together. Yesterday morning, we met Beatriz, (one of my co-workers), at the El Tovar Dining Room for breakfast. This was the first time in two summers that we had patronized the famous lodges restaurant, and we weren't disappointed. Patty had Trout & eggs, I had an omelet, and Beatriz had eggs Benedict with salmon. We spent about 2 hours visiting, and then, we decided to drive to Cameron on the Navajo Indian Reservation.

Cameron isn't a large community, but the Cameron Trading Post has been there for a long time, and many of their wares are authentic Navajo arts and crafts. The price of some of the blankets, pottery, and baskets were in the several thousands of dollars. The trading post includes a restaurant, motel, and a gas station. Located on Highway 89, at the Little Colorado River, I got a few pictures of the old suspension bridge over the river gorge. Even though the bridge is fenced off to the public, at least it wasn't torn down when the new highway bridge was built.

The old bridge has a new purpose, supporting a gas pipeline.

On the drive back to the park, we stopped at Lipan Point, where I snapped a few pictures of this magnificent canyon. This particular part of the canyon is near Desert View, and is at the eastern end of the Grand Canyon National Park. This is where the inner gorge begins, and as the river continues to cut it's way farther down into the earth, this deeper part of the canyon is about 1,000 feet deep near the South Rim Village.

This white water is the Hance Rapids, and they are about 1 mile in length.

Looking east from Lipan Point.

It was nice to see some new scenery, even if only for a few hours. Today, I'm back to work, and Patty has one more day off. In some ways, the summer is passing very quickly, and in other ways, it's dragging ever so slowly. The slow part is raising it's ugly head this morning, as I head back to work for the next week!