Day 4

This was our last morning in the Grand Canyon so we had to go out big. We went back to El Tovar for breakfast. Sadly our waiter wasn't Rick and didn't have any cool signals (this further confirms my CIA hypothesis). It didn't matter because our table was facing the canyon and I had a bottomless cup of coffee. After carefully (and I mean carefully) reviewing the menu I decided to get the pancakes. Before you judge, know that these weren't just any pancakes drowning in butter and syrup....It was a pancake trio. One pancake was made with buckwheat, one was made with blue corn and of course they had one buttermilk. They came with prickly pear syrup (it's a flower on a cactus and it tasted just like a flower so I passed). They were delicious and humongous so I only managed to scarf down half before dying. That marked the end of our stat and we were moving on to Jacob Lake. We stopped on our way out to climb the watch tower and get one last glimpse from way up in the air (of course it was as awesome as always). We were confined to the car for 2 1/2 hours driving through literally the middle of nowhere in the desert. I tried to busy myself with finding sweet tunes on the radio but after awhile everything was static (I told you middle of nowhere).

Anywho we took the turn for Jacob Lake and were searching for the Jacob Lake Inn. Now maybe it's just me but when you hear the name "Jacob Lake Inn" I'm picturing a nice small inn on a big beautiful lake. WRONG (again). The lake is actually not a lake, it's basically just a depression in the ground where snow melts. I wouldn't even call it a pond. Now back to the inn...We almost missed it because it looks basically like a general store from 60 years ago (come to find out later it was built in 1923). We go inside and it's a "hotel," souvenir store, art gallery, sweet shop, and restaurant. They do it all. Our room (oh you just wait) wasn't ready and we were ravenous from our journey through the desert. Since it was the only choice we took a seat in the Jacob Lake Inn restaurant. We ordered a couple of burgers (they went down easy). Rows of cookies were staring at us and they claim they're the best out west so we got some oatmeal raisin ones (they were average).

Our room was finally ready so we drove down this gravel road between the inn and the gas station and there were single cabins and a few one story low strips of rooms. We pulled up to ours and I had no idea what was going to be behind door 56. For starters the walls were a lovely blend of concrete and wood panelling. There was a tiny (I think you could fit 2 plates on it) round table with three chairs just hanging out randomly in the middle of the room. The sink/mirror station was about one foot from my bed. I'm sure you're probably asking "Now Healy, What about the bathroom?!?!" Well after some searching we found it. The light switch is on the outside and when the door is open you can't get to it (highly frustrating). Once you maneuver turning the lights on, the toilet is about a foot from the wall in front of it and it's made for small children. There is a giant water heater blatantly right beside it. Across from that is the shower. If you are over 5'7" you will have to duck to get any water on your head. all of said water goes directly on the floor because there's no curb to it. They did have towels but they begged you not to use them to wash your car or RV with. Seriously...they had several framed signs in the room stating this. Well we had a good laugh for a solid 10 minutes until we realized there wasn't a TV and that the American Idol finale was tonight. Since we couldn't do anything else we passed out for a couple hours.

We did see that an area attraction was a fire tower so we drove 2 minutes to climb it (doin big things, I know). That was fun until the wind ame close to blowing us off. We wanted to watch the sunset so we drove a ways to get to a viewpoint at the edge of the Kaibab plateau. We get there probably an hour and a half early. This gave me a great opportunity to get some journaling in as the sun started to go down (I know, my coolness astounds you). We had the best view of the "Grand Staircase National Monument." It's just like tiered mountainous things but boy was that sunset worth a 90 minute wait. It was absolutely beeeeeeeeautiful. Now I love sunsets, seriously I do. And I've seen a decent amount in my day and this was definitely one of the best. I might go as far as putting it in my top 3. Don't worry, I took lots of pictures.  Towards the end you had the sun setting in front of you and if you turned around you could see the full moon starting to show in the sky. EPIC.

Well it was getting late and time for some grub so we headed back to none other than the Jacob Lake Inn restaurant. Apparently Jacob lake shuts down early because it was just after 8 and their dining room was closed so we had to sit at the "counter" (basically a no alcohol bar.bleh) Well we ordered their signature chicken sandwich and it was just aiight. then it was time for desert. They've been raving about their precious pie since we got there so we figured we had to get a slice. Our waiter was adamant about their scrumptiousness. He was even so bold as to claim that people who don't like a pie flavor will eat a piece of theirs and love it. Well we decided to split a piece of apple (we're kinda apple pie whores if you haven't noticed). He places it down in front of us so pleased with it. We take one bite and realize that this pie is not good. After a few more bites we can safely say that this was in fact the worst slice of apple pie we've ever had. There weren't enough apples and there was too much goo. It also didn't help that they emptied the jars of cinnamon and nutmeg into it. After we expressed concern over these peoples taste buds and pie experiences, we had a real good laugh.

To sum it up Jacob Lake has fantastic sunsets and horrible pie