Sunday, 7/24, Four Corners Monument, Travel to Albuquerque, NM

The boys and I went to Ahavas Torah Synagogue in Scottsdale for morning
services.  The synagogue is in a house in a residential neighborhood with no
distinctive markings on it.  If I had hadn't see someone else entering, I may
not have ever found it.  But I did have the address, so I probably would have
found the number,

We packed up and headed out of Scottsdale at 10:30AM.  Later than we really
wanted to.  Then we had to stop for a picture with a cool cactus.

We headed over to the kosher market to pick up some stuff for the next few days. 
It looks like Memphis has some kosher stores, so we can replenish there again. 
This was the same place that we went to on Friday that didn't have much for
takeout, but this time we just needed packaged goods, so it met our needs.

Naama REALLY wanted to go to The Four Corners Monument where Utah, Colorado,
Arizona, and New Mexico touch in one spot.  She had learned about it a few years
ago in school.  It's about a 5.5 hour drive from Scottsdale.  We had to
backtrack to Flagstaff and then it's to the northeast from there.  From the
monument it's 4 hours to Albuquerque, NM.  Together, it's about a 3 hour extra
drive.  But, hey, we'll only be here once.  Boring drive there.  The Navajo
Nation has a huge reservation where the monument is located.  They keep daylight
savings time, as opposed to the rest of Arizona.  So we lost the hour going
there and got there around 5:00PM MDT.  Surrounding the monument are many booths
where the local tribe members set up shop to sell their artwork mainly.  But
Naama found a kosher pickle at the snack booth!  The girls found some jewelry,
and we also found a shot glass.  (They only had a few, not enough for the whole
family.)  But no bumper stickers, either there or at the trading post right
outside.

Which state would I file a deduction for??

From there we headed to Albuquerque, NM (I hate spelling that out all the time). 
Karen would take over the driving until it got dark out.  She gets all the fun
driving, as the distant sky turned very dark, and we wound up driving on what
seemed to be the edge of the storm.  Didn't rain that much on us, but there were
duststorms blowing across the road.  At one point it was blinding.  And lots of
real tumbleweed scooted across the road.  Just like in the movies/cartoons.  And
nice rainbows too.

Dust storm, the tumbleweed just made it across before I could snap the picture

 

Inspiration for the Shiprock, NM town name.  Not sure that it looks like a ship, but it's just there in the middle of nowhere.  Looks like one of those spooky mountains or castles.

Once it got dark I took over.  For pretty much the entire rest of the drive
Mother Nature treated us to cool fireworks.  The lightening was incredible.  The
skies are so wide open that you could see every bolt shooting down (actually,
lightening forms upwards as all you meteorologists already know).  And lots of
sky lightening that seemed to have the reddish glow of the red rock formations
all around.  Pretty neat.  Once we got to the hotel you could hear the thunder
too.  And the lightening was like right overhead.

Tomorrow we head for Oklahoma City.

Shabbos, 7/23, Scottsdale, AZ

Yikes, I forgot to mention in Friday's post that the pizza lunch in Scottsdale was sponsored by Karen's parents, Bubby Diane and Zaidy Maurice Kessler.  When we went to meet the Skokie Lerer cousins, Bubby had said lunch was on her, but we had forgotten about that.  She reminded us again and insisted that she wants to take us out, since following the blog has allowed her to feel like she was actually on the trip with us.  It was a token of her continuous generosity towards us for so many years now (coming up on 20 in a few weeks, plus the few before we got married!!).  Not to mention, it seemed like an easy way for them to get a shout-out in this blog.  So we thank Bubby and Zaidy for lunch, from which we still have some leftovers in the fridge.

It was a HOT day today in Scottsdale - at least we think it was.  We didn't leave the hotel until close to 8:00PM for a walk, and it was brutal out.  It was even pretty humid.  We took a walk around the block for about 25 minutes.  Saw some lightning in the distance.  They forecasted a chance of thunderstorms, but they have not arrived as of yet.

We all woke up somewhat late, davened/prayed the morning services, and then took a short nap.  The whole week was catching up with us.  We ate lunch at around 12:30PM and then took another nap (!).  There must be a little league tournament in the area as there are several families here with their car windows all "grafitti'd" up with their kids' names and numbers.  One of the families is in the room next door, and there was constant activity in and out of it late at night and all day long.  I imagine there are no games during the day because of the heat, and it's quiet now (9:00PM) so they must be out at a game.

They had National Geographic's Traveler magazine in the lobby.  It was cool reading about several of the places that we've either been to, or traveled near or thru.

Tomorrow we start the trek home.  We plan on hitting "The Four Corners" where the states of Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico touch at one point.  It's a bit out of the way, but the kids really want to do it.  Potential stay in Albuquerque, NM at night.  We still don't have this week's reservations for hotels yet.  We will probably do that tonight.

Friday, 7/22, Travel from Flagstaff, AZ to Scottsdale, AZ

We left Flagstaff (and a balmy 78F) at around 10AM.  It's a two hour drive to
Scottsdale.  As we drove the temperature kept rising, and rising, and rising. 
We hit 102F as we headed thru the desert.  We finally got to see those
"traditional" cacti like you see in the cartoons and pictures.  The ones with
the tall middle and the arms arcing upwards from the body.  There were tons of
them all along a good stretch of the highway.

We got to the take-out market in Scottsdale around noon.  However, the place
didn't really have much of a selection.  It sounded like you need to place an
order during the week for them to prepare for pickup.  Didn't know that.

So we headed to Phoenix to another market.  It's about a 15 minute drive.  This
store was much better stocked, but nowhere near what the place in Denver had. 
But we were able to get what we needed.  They also let us keep the perishables
in their fridge while we headed over to the pizza place for lunch.  The guy told
us where the place was.  So we get there and the place is closed on Fridays in
the summer.  Great.  There's another place nearby so we went there.  Luckily
that was open and we got a couple of pies to go.

We headed to the hotel to check in and get all our stuff in the fridge.  It was
104F at this point.  (Later, I was watching the news and they said the temps
have been BELOW normal!!)  But it's a dry heat!  We had our pizza and the kids
went swimming.  Later on we went over to the supermarket for some groceries and
then back to the hotel to get ready for Shabbos.  After the long week, we're
looking forward to a relaxing Shabbos.  We're not in the Orthodox community, so
there is no synagogue nearby.  We'll be at the hotel all day.

The trek home begins Sunday morning.

Thursday, Grand Canyon South Rim, Travel to Flagstaff, AZ

We packed up and headed out (this is starting to sound repetitive, isn't it??)
of Kingman, AZ at around 9:15AM.  Chavee and Vic would follow just a few minutes
after us.  We planned to meet at the National Geographic Visitor Center, which
is a few miles south of the main national park entrance.  There they have an
IMAX film and a gift shop (of course!).  We got there at around 11:45 and Chavee
and Vic were about 15 minutes behind.  We bought our park entrance pass and IMAX
tickets and perused the gift shop until our 12:30 film showing.  Chavee found a
bumper sticker that she bought for us.  (The cargo carrier is slowly filling up
with all the stickers now.  Even easier to spot in the parking lots now!)

Saw this forest fire as we approached the park.  Turned out it had gotten started by lightening 2 weeks ago but is now being managed to control overgrowth in the area.

The film was about the early exployers of the Grand Canyon and the Colorado
River running thru it.  It showed how they were in flimsy rowboats going thru
the powerful rapids and what they needed to do to overcome the harsh
environment.  Of course it ended with clips of today's "adventurers" going thru
the rapids in much more advanced rafts/kayaks having a grand time.  It does look
like fun, but no time for that on THIS trip.

Chavee and Vic also opted to do a live bird show featuring condors.  As they
went there, we moved ahead to the park to scout out a place to have lunch.  We
got to the South Rim Visitor Center and hiked a bit on the Rim Trail, but there
was nothing in the shade, so we returned to the center were there were places to
sit in the shade.  We met up with Chavee and Vic and "dined" there.

We decided to do the Rim Trail which is an easy paved trail along the South Rim
of the canyon.  There are hop-on/hop-off shuttle buses as well that will take
you along most of the South Rim trails (about 8-9 miles in total).  So we
figured we'd hike as much as we could and then take the shuttle back.  The views
were spectacular.  Where we were, the drop to the river was about 5000 feet,
which was still 2000 feet above sea level.  To the other side of the canyon was
about 10 miles.  At one point there was a guide who set up a powerful telescope
where you could see a lodge on the North Rim side.  It was not visible with the
naked eye.

So we hiked all along, taking in the magnificent views.  (I have to admit, the
views started to look the same to me after a while.)  We read that as the sun
moves during the day, the different reflections off the canyon walls change the
views significantly.

We must have hiked about 2-3 miles (it seemed like a lot more) when we decided
to get on the shuttle to go down a bit futher to Hopi Point where we were told
(by the map and other hikers) that the views were really impressive.  So we
headed off the trail to pick up the shuttle, but before that we found the
restrooms and water fill-up stations.  At that point Vic called out, "Whoever
needs filling up and/or emptying out, now's your chance!!"  So that earned a big
laugh from my kids (bathroom humor lovers), and an entry into the blog!

We got off the shuttle at Hopi Point and, yes, it was impressive, but again,
they seemed to look all the same to me already.

Colorado River running thru Grand Canyon

After that we decided to head back, so we got on the shuttles (you have to
transfer shuttles to get all the way back).  Chavee and Vic wanted to stay for
sunset (about 30-45 minutes still to go) but we passed, deciding to try to get
to Flagstaff (1.5 hour drive) at a decent hour.  Chavee had brought family-size
deli packs, so she made sandwiches for her and Vic and offered the rest to us. 
We accepted the offer and had our own sandwiches back at the hotel.  Thanks
Chavee!

We got to Flagstaff, AZ at around 9:15PM.  We took a detour from the GPS where
there was a sign for Flagstaff.  The GPS was taking us due south and then due
east on I-40.  This bypass road (180) went southeast, so it might have been a
little shorter, but a little longer timewise.  I think it was worth it, since I
was getting tired and this road was a little curvy and darker so it kept my
attention better than the boring straight route on the GPS.

Tomorrow we head out for Scottsdale to get provisions for Shabbos/Sabbath and
for the weekend stay.  We won't be near any synagogue though.  Even if we were,
the 100+F temp would probably preclude us from walking any significant distance. 
It's amazing that Flagstaff has temps that are 20F less than the surrounding
area.  Must be something with the topography of the land.

Wednesday, 7/20, Grand Canyon West, SkyWalk

It's about a 1.5 hour drive from Kingman, AZ to the Grand Canyon SykWalk.  They
say to plan for a 2-4 hour visit.  So we decided that we could sleep in a bit
and leave at around 10:30.  Chavee and Vic left from Los Angeles at around
10:30PM Tuesday night, and would drive thru the night and go straight there. 
They got there at about 5:00AM, but the park is still closed at that time.  Vic was able
to convince a security guard to let them go somewhere closer than the parking lot
to see the sunrise ("We drove ALL THE WAY from L.A. to see sunrise...").  So the
guy said, "Follow me", and they drove thru all those signs that say "Employees
Only", "Authorized Vehicles Only", and the like.  But he said to leave right
after sunrise or else he would have to come and get them.  They complied.

There is a 10 mile stretch of road leading to the site that is unpaved. 
Apparently, that area is owned by several different people and some want to keep
it pristine and natural so they refuse to let it get paved.  The guide told me
they are planning their own bypass road that will be fully paved.  It really was
a bumpy ride.  It is packed gravel and rock, but it also is like when one of
those construction vehicles or military tanks drives over something and leaves
those big tracks and creates lots of bumps.  After driving several miles, there
was a sign warning us of the rough road.  DUH?!?!?

We got there a bit after noon and met Chavee and Vic.  They had done the
first helicopter trip of the day and were waiting for us.  We bought tickets for
the shuttle bus and the skywalk.  The shuttle bus takes you to a few stops for
scenic views and a working ranch.  One of the stops is the skywalk.  First stop
was the skywalk (Eagle Point).  As we got to security, all who were on the
skywalk had to get off because they needed to get a wheelchair on to get someone
off.  They passed us by with a teenage girl in the chair.  Not sure what
happened, but she might have gotten some kind of panic attack out there.  Before
they brought here out, I was joking with Vic, saying a bit loud, "What do you
mean they found a crack in the bridge?!?!?"

So we finally got on the bridge.  You can't bring anything with you, lest things
will drop and scuff up the glass.  I think it's more so they can get you to
buy their pictures that they take of you out there.  You also have to put on
"booties" to lessen the scuffing of the glass.  It truly is an amazing
engineering feat.  They said it can support 71 million pounds, or 71 fully
loaded/fueled Boeing 747's.  So that calmed everyone down a bit.  Our "guide"
had us pose for whatever pictures we wanted, mostly on her suggestions.  Of
course we didn't know what the pictures would cost yet.  Chavee thought this was
the scariest thing she has ever done.  Karen was also very hesitant at first,
but she got over it after a little while.  It is pretty amazing to see straight
down 4000 feet.  Like the Hoover Bypass Bridge, I can't imagine what it was like
working on its construction.
 

Fissure in the rock where you can see all the way down

Cool rock formation, hence the term Eagle Point

SkyWalk sticking out over the canyon

One of the pictures courtesy of the gift shop after we bought our photos

Skydiving, with shadow of bridge way down below

The next stop on the bus was Guano Point.  It's called that for the word for bat
droppings that they discovered in caves on the other side of the canyon.  The
droppings were extremely good fertilizer for the crops.  They built a 7500 foot
tram over the canyon to get there.  But not long after it opened, an air force
jet clipped the cables flying thru and it never was reopened.  The structure
holding the cables is still in place.  There are also some really good views
from the small rocky mountains on the edge of the canyon.  Chavee and Vic had
already done this stop while waiting for us, so they continued on the bus to go
check in to the hotel.  They were exhausted from the overnight drive and the day
in the hot sun (around 95F).  I don't care what they say about a "dry heat" - it
is HOT!!!

Not very appetizing once you learn what "Guano" means

Colorado river is the curved thing in the center that looks like a road (as Adina thought at first)

Kids are at the top with their hands raised

While driving on our way back, something up ahead was quickly crossing the road.  It
looked at first like a larger lizard looking creature, but as we got close it had just made it
to the other side (not sure why it was crossing :-) ) and I could tell it was a bird of some
sort.  I thought it looked like a Roadrunner (yes, that type of bird from the cartoon is
an actual bird).  I looked it up back at the hotel, and sure enough that was what we saw.
The windows were all closed so I couldn't quite make out its distinctive "meep meep"
call.

Picture I found on the web to confirm my sighting of the Roadrunner

We got back to the hotel at around 6:15PM to relax a bit (pool!) before finding a place
for a hot dog barbecue.  We headed out a bit after 8:00 and it was starting to
get dark.  We found a park a mile away and set up shop.  Chavee and Vic had a
battery powered LED lantern and we had a flashlight.  We cooked everything up,
and had sauerkraut, baked beans, corn, pickles, and watermelon.  We were almost
done eating when Adina notice some big bug running on the ground.  They looked
like very large roaches.  Credit goes to everyone for not freaking out, while I
looked like I was doing one of the dancing arcade games jumping around stomping
on whatever bugs I could catch.

Had to stop for a bunch of cattle on the road on the way out near a ranch

We drove thru what looked like cactus farms; miles of fields filled with them

We dropped the kids off and then we all went to Walmart for the exciting night
activity to replenish our supplies.  The night before when we went, the cashier
asked for photo id to use the credit card.  She saw the address and said, "Oh,
I'm from Piscataway!!"  Small world.  It's pretty funny that in this Walmart
(Supercenter with the grocery also) in Kingman, AZ, there is a kosher section. 
We were browsing the aisle and happened upon a small section of the shelf where
they had the typical kosher stuff - Manischewitz products, etc.  But no Dr.
Brown's soda here like in the other supermarket's kosher sections.

Tomorrow we plan to head out at around 9:00 for the 2.5 hour drive to the South
Rim of the Grand Canyon.  It's about an hour north of Williams, AZ.  The routine
now is that when we need to get up early and everyone complains, Karen says, "You
can sleep back in New Jersey!!"  So that has become a tagline.

Tuesday, 7/19, Travel from Los Angeles, CA to Kingman, AZ

When we got back last night from Universal Studios and after having dinner,
Chavee, Vic, Karen, and I sat down to figure out a plan for the Grand Canyon.  Turns
out we weren't getting rid of them so fast after all.  They decided to come
join the fun in Arizona!  They haven't been there in quite some time and wanted
to see the new SkyWalk that juts out over the canyon on land that belongs to the
neighboring Native American reservation.

I hadn't really looked closely at the map, so our original plan was to stay a
few nights in Flagstaff, which is "close" to the South Rim (1.5 hour drive). 
But it turns out that the SkyWalk is actually on the West Rim, 2-3 hours closer
than the South Rim.  So I checked out the hotel situation and was able to change
the reservation to stay in Kingman, AZ for two nights and then move on to
Flagstaff for one night.  Kingman is about a five hour drive from LA (and the
Marriott points are less than the hotel in Flagstaff to boot!).  It's about a
1.5 hour drive to the SkyWalk from Kingman.

This morning we ran some errands to restock some food and packed our stuff up,
and said goodbye to everyone (although we missed Elianna, but she left a note
for us that she'll see us in Edison - she goes to Rutgers.  Oh, and Yael had
slept over at a friend so we missed her too!).  Ziggy took it especially hard to
see us leave.  We picked up a couple of movies at RedBox for the ride and left
LA at around noon.

Is that a tear I see, Ziggy??

Heading out of LA

I drove for about 2.5 hours and then started getting pretty tired (remember,
it was a fast day today, so no food/drink since last night).  Karen had taken
full advantage of the two hours and got a good nap in.  She took over and
finished the drive.  It was pretty darn hot outside.  I also saw what I thought
were sprinklers on in the distant desert fields along the highway (US 40).  But
upon further inspection, I think they were small dust storms that looked like
mini tornados.  They were whipping around in a circular motion.  A bunch of them
were around.

It actually hit 112F for a bit, but not long enough to realize and get a picture

Crossing the Colorado at CA/AZ border

No, the people in the picture were not running across the highway; they got out to take pictures (I think)

We got to the hotel around 5:00PM MST.  It's the exact same design as the nice
hotel we had in Grand Junction, CO. We didn't have to change our clocks/watches
since Arizona is in the Mountain time zone, but they don't have daylight savings
time (some areas might, I've been told), so the net effect is no change in time.
We rested up for a bit and then headed to Walmart to get some groceries and
stuff.  The fast was over at 8:39PM.  It was a long day, but it was better to be
in the car with the A/C on than anywhere outside in the area.

Chavee and Vic will be heading here tonight or early tomorrow morning.  They
plan to do a helicopter tour and river landing and then we'll meet them for the
SkyWalk.  You have to do some other tour given by the Native American tribe
($$$) in order to even get access to do the SkyWalk (more $$$)!  We'll be able
to sleep in a bit in the morning, so that will be a nice change.

Monday, 7/18, Universal Studios

Headed out around 9:45AM to go to Universal Studios in Hollywood.  First we had
to stop to get lunches.  Karen got a break this morning from making the usual
sandwiches as we went to The Bagel Factory and had them make up the sandwiches. 
Then had to fill up gas since it was flirting with the 'E'.

We arrived at Universal Studios at around 11:00.  Put our stuff in a locker and
proceeded to have some fun!!  I think we pretty much hit every attraction. 
Started with the House of Horrors, over to the Terminator 2 3-D movie, The
Simpson's Ride, and then to lunch.  After lunch we did Shrek 4-D and the
WaterWorld stunt show.  This was all in the "Upper Lot" area.

Then we headed to the Studio Tour.  There was an hour long wait, but it was
worth it.  They have a new King Kong 360 3-D experience with it, where the tour
tram goes into this tunnel, but it's really a 360 degree 3-D screen that shows
an action sequence (i.e., big fight) between King Kong and dinosaurs.  They
"jump" over the tram and the tram is bouncing all around in tune with the action
on the screens.  It really is one of a kind.

WaterWorld

Jake and Elwood were IN THE HOUSE!!!

Fast and Furious

Bates Motel

After that we went down to the "Lower Lot".  They have a Jurassic Park ride,
which is like a log flume ride.  The big drop doesn't get you all that wet, but
they just have waterfalls along the way that there's no chance of keeping dry. 
There's also a Revenge of the Mummy roller coaster.  It's indoors and has some
pretty good acceleration.  No real drops, but some nice tight turns.  Then it
stops and you do it backwards.  Karen actually did this one with us.  Maybe this
will be a first for some of the more adventurous coasters in the future???

We then raced over to Special Effects Stage show where they show how special
effects are/were done.  From the old time movies to the current ones using
advanced computer imaging.  The last show would be an Animals Actors show.  The
boys and I skipped it since it was getting close to afternoon prayers time.  So
we went off to a corner and did our thing and the girls went to the show until
we were done.  Then we left the park.

For dinner we went to Jeff's Gourmet Kosher Sausage - a burger place that makes
their own sausages and stuff too.  Lots of choices to pick from.  Most of us got
some form of a burger.  There was no room to sit there so we got it to go. 
Besides for the couple of items they missed on the order (some sides),
everything was great.  We treated everyone as a thanks for a most welcoming stay
here.

Tomorrow is a religious fast day and we will head to the Grand Canyon area
(Kingman, AZ for a couple of nights, then to Flagstaff, AZ for a night).  Better
to drive on the fast day than to be out and about doing something that could be
more tiring.