Well, it had to happen sometime. Everything has been awesome on this, and honestly all of our vacations. But today we had a crummy tour! Crummy and expensive which is soooo much worse.

We got started early today – we needed to be on the road by 8am so we would be at the Grand Canyon by 11:30 for our Pink Jeep Grand Canyon Tour. We left fine, and drove along a beautiful, although sometimes treacherous drive across Arizona and Navajo Nation. Even spotting another Mountain Monogram in Page, Arizona.

We drove through the Grand Canyon National Park and made on quick stop at the Watchtower Overlook before heading to the Holiday Inn Express to meet our tour. We made it at 11:20 – checked in, dropped bags and cooler, grabbed our backpacks and water bottles and met our guide, right on time 😀

The tour started off fine. We were with a family from Kansas who were driving to California to surprise their kids with trip to Disneyland. Our Guide, Brad, was very nice and explained lots of things as we drove. Nothing went wrong on the tour, but there was nothing out of the ordinary either. My rule for any tour we take is “did you show us something we couldn’t have done on our own?” The answer for today was a resounding NO! Ugh!!! I hate not getting my money’s worth 😡 basically we paid for someone to make conversation with us, take our photos and drive us to 3 overlooks that we could go to ourselves 🤦🏻‍♀️😡🤷🏻‍♀️ lesson learned! At least we got some good pictures 🤪

BUT the Grand Canyon was really amazing! The colors and levels for all the different kinds of soil were unreal. It was fun to see the boys’ reactions

We stopped at “duck on a rock” overlook … Because it looks like a duck sitting on a rock.Can you see it?

And made some great family pictures… coming to a Christmas Card near you soon 😉We also had a little fun pretending to “fall”Such Hams 🤣😂🤣

We left this overlook and Brad showed us the pine trees that grow here. When you “smell” the bark it smells like vanilla/orange creamsicle! And as the tree ages, it looses its’ bark and the trunk turns orange. The more orange the trunk, the older the tree. Back in the Jeep and off we go to Watchtower (where we stopped coming in… for free 🤦🏻‍♀️). some of us were starting to get sleepy No one knows why the Indians who lived here built these towers but clearly they were worried about someone or something. We went inside the replica built in 1939.

Boys loved seeing the petroglyphs – like hieroglyphics but prehistoric The views from the Watchtower were really beautiful. And it wasn’t as crowded as some of the other spots.

On the drive to the next overlook, we saw some elk. (Again, same elk that we passed on our way to meet the tour… for free 😤) They were pretty cute but apparently we were the only country people in the park today, because people were amazed that there were elk and deer roaming around!?! Seriously, I have deer come on my front porch to eat my flowers. Ugh! 🙄 It finally got to be a joke. We were giggling to the point of tears from Mike’s yankee impersonation of “oh my gawd, it’s a de-ah!” 🤣🤣🤣Waiting in line because “oh my Gawd, it’s a de-ah!” 🤣🤣🤣

But again, focusing on the Positive: I am loving these black and white photos! Who knew you could do so much with an iPhone and the photo edit app.

We left Watchtower and went to another overlook. We thought we were getting out again, but instead, Brad just wanted us to stop and look out over the Canyon. Think of that thing we most want to do and then make a promise to ourselves to make it happen. 🤢 Seriously? It took all I had not to say, what I most want to do is get my money back for this tour. Can you make that happen, Brad? 😤🤪😡🤪😤

Thanks to the power of prayer and self-control, I did not say that. I smiled, tipped my guide, and went on with life (and wrote a scathing trip advisor review and dis-satisfaction survey) Boys were ready run a bit, so we went back to hotel, grabbed lunch and headed back to the park to tour on our own.We drive around the park, and honestly it’s really disappointing to see. The Canyon is just gorgeous but the areas around the Canyon are really run down. It’s just missing a Wings to complete the commercialism. Maybe if we had not seen so much natural beauty at Zion and Bryce, then this may be okay.

BUT we have giggled so much over the mess ups today, that it’s ended up being an awesome day. We had dinner at Plaza Bonita- and were absolutely stuffed with some of the best Mexican food.

Tomorrow we head out for Monument Valley and whatever adventure we can find along the way 🚗 🚙🚗🚙🚗