Adventures By Disney--We Made It to The Grand Canyon

After traveling via motor coach from Sedona, we arrived at the Grand Canyon and got our first glimpse of the mighty canyon! What a dizzying, goosebump experience! It is difficult to describe the awe and wonder that this massive geological creation produces.

Click here to read more about our day getting to the Grand Canyon.

Once we arrived, we explored the South Rim for a while and checked out the visitor's center. We purchased a cool pop-up book about animals in the area. There's a saying that people who visit the Grand Canyon spend 20 minutes looking at the Canyon and 40 minutes looking in the shop. We definitely wanted to reverse those numbers.

When I viewed the Canyon and couldn't help but ask "How did that happen?" It is difficult to fathom the millions of years it took to create the geological wonder.

The temperatures had dropped quite a bit from Sedona and there were moments when we were chilly. We had gone up in elevation from where we started in Phoenix. It is definitely the "high desert." Click here to read about traveling from Phoenix to Sedona. Click here and here to read more about out time in Sedona.

We rode our motor coach to the Thunderbird Lodge, our lodging for the next two nights. The Thunderbird Lodge is built on the South Rim of the Canyon just next to Hopi House and El Tovar. All the rooms in the two story Thunderbird Lodge look out over the Canyon. We were on the 2nd floor so we had an amazing view from our window.

Now, the accommodations are a bit dated, even though the bathroom had been recently renovated. But as they say in the real estate business--location, location, location! In the lobby of Thunderbird Lodge there is a room with a fireplace built by Mary Coulter, a well known architect for Canyon buildings. The stones of the fireplace are from each layer of the Canyon are are in the order you would find them in the Canyon. Such details!

For dinner that evening, we all gathered in a meeting room at Thunderbird Lodge for a meal, a show, and a view. The windows in the room all look out over the Canyon. The show was a Native American drum player/singer and a young Native American dancer. He told us much information of the area and gave us an authentic performance.

By the end of the evening, we were all dancing together while the drums played. Disney magic!

We turned in for the evening just shortly after as we had a full day of Canyon exploring the next day.

Click here to read about our day exploring the Grand Canyon.

I must tell two stories at this point. One is about the soap at Thunderbird Lodge. It has a hole in the middle. The box says that it is to save soap, as people use the outside layer and then throw the middle away and to make it easier to grip. We thought this was very interesting and environmentally conscious.

The second has to do with the tile in the bathroom which had pictures of various animals you would find in the Canyon area. I had stayed at the dinner location to get the news and announcements that we would need the next day. . . times, plans, etc. The husband and boy went back to shower and get ready for bed. When I returned to the room, the boy announced that there was a jackass in the bathroom. Blown away by the word, as it is not a word we use, and confused by the notion that there would be an animal in the bathroom, I glanced at the husband with a puzzled expression. It was then that the husband grinning and sheepish pointed to the tile in the shower that had a donkey. The donkey had been given another name during the shower by the husband. Memories!