We kicked things off by seeing Fleetwood Mac in Phoenix (which was amazing) and staying the night in the area with some good friends who recently moved up there from Tucson. I was so excited for getting a bit of an edge on the day's driving by starting off a good 2 hours closer to the Grand Canyon than our house, but we ended up needing to take a detour down to Casa Grande. I forgot my camera, of all things, and my father-in-law was awesome and met us about halfway between Tucson and Phoenix. Driving all the way to Tucson and back would have added 4 hours of driving time!!
Anyways, it ended up being for the best, because he gave us a map and tipped us off to some ruins outside of Flagstaff we hadn't been to. Now, granted, we had a GPS and our phones, but ever since we drove across the country 6 years ago, I've enjoyed having physical maps when travelling. I think it makes me feel like "a real adult" since I didn't even learn how to read a map until that move. Anyways, we made excellent time, stopped in Flagstaff for lunch, visited the Wupatki Ruins, and continued on towards Grand Canyon National Park.
Our first night we are staying inside the park at Maswik Lodge, in one of their cabins. The stand alone cabins have 4 separately booked rooms, but it really feels like you are in your own little cabin. We grabbed a snack and then headed out on our sunset bus tour I scheduled for us that evening.
It was breathtaking. I mean, I know its a huge deal and people travel all over the world and yadda yadda yadda, but I guess I still wasn't prepared for how awesome it was? I think it is good I did not do this when I was younger, because I definitely went through an "I'm too cool to get excited about things" phase and I wouldn't have appreciated what it meant to be at the Grand Canyon.
