Day 2

One thing you need to know about my dad and I is that we love a leisurely breakfast and when we go on vacation we search out the best bfast spot in town. Today was no different. We consulted our bff Ram at the front desk and he told us to go to the Sedona Airport Restaurant. Not quite an appetizing name. I was a little skeptical but I had to trust my buddy Ram (he had in fact led me to the holy grail of burritos). We took a shuttle up to it and it was a teeeeeeny airport on top of a butte (yes, butte) for lil propeller planes. The restaurant was literally right beside the runway (freakin sweet). Another thing you need to know is that on vaca cofffee is free game, as opposed to in real life where my dad limits my intake so I won't have a heart attack. So needless to say, I was knocking back the coffee and perusing the menu until I saw....pumpkin bread french toast. I had to get it (let's be serious, I countdown the days until Einsteins has pumpkin bagels and pumpkin cream cheese). I ordered it and my dad ordered the eggs benedict (homeboy loves eggs benedict). Anywho I tried to pass the time by looking out the window and drinking more and more coffee (which made me very jittery and anxious for my french toast). FINALLY it arrived in all it's glory. I buttered it as fast as my lil hands could and took a big bite. Then I died. It was defreakinlicious. The best I've ever had and my stomach thanked me for making such a good choice.

After breakfast we went to Exposures International Art Gallery. Greg was in heaven (and we only scoped out the outside). It had tons of massive southwest-y sculptures (think buffalo, indians, eagles etc). These things were something else. I mean if an eagle is going to cost you $550,000 (I'm not exaggerating in the slightest) I guess it better be special. Once my dad stopped drooling, We went to another place called Tlaquepaque where we went in all sorts of neat little art galleries. Then we had to part ways with Ram (tears may or may not have been shed).

studly Indian at Exposures

Now we were headed to the GRAND CANYON. We essentially drove 2 hours going farther and farther into the middle of nowhere (a few random trailers scattered about). So finally we get to the park and I was famished (this is the only time I get cranky). Needless to say we had to get some food in me fast so we ate at this food court type deal at the Yavapai Lodge (cold taco pizza not worth writing about blah). Now I perked back up so we could go see the canyon finally! We check out a map and start walking towards what we think is the rim. WRONG. It was the path to some lodge. We walk back and regroup at our map and start walking again. This time we think we're on it! WRONG. We walked for a solid amount of time and then when we we were walking past where the employees lived and some sort of hut with chemicals we thought we must be going the wrong way. So we trek back to our map of lies and find the right route...FINALLY. Once we were on the right track, it was a real quick and easy walk to the rim. And all of the sudden....there it was....the Grand Canyon. It was pretty shocking. I wish I was a somewhat competent writer so I could properly use adjectives and give you a worthy description. But I'm not. Sorry. All I can tell you is that it feels like I got on the Magic School Bus and it took me to the inside of a postcard. We walked around the rim snappin pics for a while and then we checked into our room at the Yavapai Lodge.

Check out the California Condors

We had a much needed little siesta until it was time for dinner. On our way we saw a car pulled over on the side of the road and a lady was waving her arms frantically at us. I was fully prepared o jump out of our car and perform a minor surgery but she was just showing us the elk. There were probably a dozen elk total on both sides of the road eating their dinner. A few even crossed the street right in front of our car. Pretty exciting way to kick off the night.

We ate dinner at the restaurant at El Tovar. It's this ancient hotel that was the fanciest of fancy back in the day ( I mean it's still pretty fancy now). Anywho I knew I was going to be in for some good eats. Our waiter was this man in his 50's named Rick and boy was he a character. I don't know if he was in the CIA or if he went to professional waiter school but he sure acted like it.  He gave us our menus and said we wouldn't see him until we stood a menu up on the table (he demonstrated this in case there was some confusion). We could hardly wait til he left to start giggling. He referenced this and other secret signals throughout the night. I bout died. Anywho back to the food. whenever I'm out to eat nice places I enjoy getting exotic pork dishes (weird, I know). So tonight I got the pork chop with this gouda sauce and green chile cornbread stuffing. It was OMG delish. We spied another table getting their own individual silver pitchers of coffee, so of course we had to get on that. We gave Rick a signal and we said we wanted to split a piece of apple pie and have some coffee. He was adamant that we get the pie "a la mode" We said no thanks, and he said it's really good like that and we again said NO. IDK if Rick has been stuck out in the canyon for a while but there's apple pie a la mode everywhere and we've had it before obvi and tonight we just didn't want it. Well it gave us a good chuckle. Our individual pitchers of coffee came and oooooo was it good. The pie was scrumptious too (even without the ice cream Rick)

We went outside to check out the canyon at night. It's definitely my favorite when the sun is down and the moon is up. The inside of the canyon has this silvery glow and it looks so soft and tranquil. You can see every single star in the sky and ooo baby do they shine bright. It was really something else. We headed back to the room and realized we missed DWTS. We were bummed. All I wanted to see was Derek Hough (sexy, can I?) work it.

To sum it up...I'm pretty sure there's pumpkin break french toast on the menu in Heaven. The Grand Canyon scores a 100 on the epic scale. And I'm almost certain Rick was once a member of the CIA.

PS. God, Thank You