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September 27, 2011 - 11:40 p.m.
"the kaibab trail" or "weary travelers" or "happy birthday to me"

Hey Journal!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME! :) I can't believe it's my birthday today... It totally doesn't feel like it for so many reasons!

I have quite a task ahead of me! It's now Tuesday night, and I have to fill you in on Monday AND Tuesday. The way our flights were scheduled, and the time zone change, it's as if it was all one long and crazy day!!

So, let's start with Monday!

We woke up at about 5:45am on Monday morning at our hotel in Williams, AZ. We got dressed, ready, and packed up our stuff. We leaded up the car, and then drove to the Grand Canyon! It took about an hour to get there, and along the way, we saw an Elk that had been hit by a car! The car was right next to it, and it was pretty badly damaged. The police were there, too, and Dan said he saw the woman in the car crying. He suggested that she was crying because they killed the Elk, however, I think she was crying because it was a rental car, and they had declined the insurance!

We stopped at a McDonald's along the way and got a quick breakfast there, and ate it as we continued to the park. When we arrived, we got a really close parking spot, went to the bathroom, and got sunscreened up, and then waited for the shuttle bus to the Kaibab Trail.

We had decided that we would meet up with the Park Ranger for the 8:00 guided hike. We figured it would be nice to have someone explain some stuff, and to go as a group. We had purchased many supplies from Target the night before, so I was pretty confident with our preparedness. We had 3 liters of water, plus whatever was already in our bottles, and we had Ritz Peanut Butter crackers, and Gatorade. We arrived at the trailhead a few minutes before 8, and there were about 20 people in our group for the guided hike. As I looked around, I noticed that we were the only ones to wear regular sneakers. Most everyone else had hiking boots on. :P Oh well! It wasn't a problem... except that my shoes got REALLY dirty.

So, we started our hike down into the canyon, and we made our way, stopping periodically for some information from our guide. His name was Chris, and he was a retired school principal, from Rhode Island and Upstate New York, who had been doing this job for 13 years.

The first point we arrived at was "Ooh Ahh Point." It was a nice view, and we stopped for a bit to take pictures there. Then we continued to Cedar Ridge. The walk down took about an hour, and it was no problem at all. I started to slide a couple of times, but I never fell, and it was pretty easy getting down. There were some scary points where the trail got REALLY thin, and there was a straight drop on the side, but it wasn't that bad.

When we arrived in Cedar Ridge, they have a little outhouse which is basically a hole in the ground with a house around it. We used the bathroom, and then sat in the shade while eating our snacks, and drinking some water. We really didn't drink much water, and were actually thinking that we were over-prepared. We didn't know why they recommended so much water! I hadn't even finished one regular bottle yet.

Our guide left, and made his way back up the trail. Once you reach Cedar Ridge, you're on your own. He doesn't come stay you anymore after that!

So, when we were ready, we started to make out way back up and out!

WOAH! What a difference. We had traveled down about 1000 feet, and going back up was INSANE. It took twice as long, and it was a million times as hard. We had to stop every couple of minutes to catch our breath and to drink some water! There were a bunch of other people making their way back up at the same time, and they all were stopping in the same shaded spots as us!

It was tough! First, it was 1000 feet uphill, and at an elevation over about 7,000 feet, the oxygen in the air is much more scarce, so you get out of breath pretty quickly! It was really a tough trip back, and let me tell you... we finished almost every drop of water we had brought with us, as well as the Gatorade... So they aren't joking when they tell you that you'll need it!

We finally made it back up to the top of the canyon and we filled up our waters with the fresh canyon spring water, and then we waited for the bus back to the Visitor Center. We took the blue bus route to check out some of the stuff on the other side of the park, and see what the hotels looked like down at the village. We walked around there, and took some pictures, and then headed back to the Visitor Center to head out around 1:15.

We got back to the car and headed back to Williams. We were already checked out of our hotel, and so we stopped for a quick bite to eat at Jack in the Box, and then hit the road back to Vegas. The car ride went by pretty quickly, and we returned to Vegas around 6:30. We didn't really have anything planned to do before heading to the airport for our flight, so we went to check out the "Gold and Silver Pawn Shop" from the TV show Pawn Stars! It was pretty cool. We took some pictures outside, and went inside! It's a lot smaller than it looks on TV, and it's set up completely differently than I imagined from the show, but nevertheless, when you looked at it, you recognized it all from the show! Unfortunately, none of the favorites were there. No old man, or anything. :P

Then, we went to the Green Valley Ranch, which is the hotel/casino that I stayed at when I came to Vegas for work three years ago. Dan played some Blackjack, and then we walked around at the outside shopping center looking for somewhere to eat.

We wound up eating at The Cheesecake Factory, and it was such a beautiful night out, so we ate outside. Our waitress was really nice, and we enjoyed.

After dinner, we went to the car and got our suitcase and backpack all figured out for the flight, and made sure we had everything packed properly.

We went back into the casino, and randomly stumbled on a Jackpot Party machine, so we decided to give it a try. We were doing well, but then lost almost everything. ($5) We kept at it, and FINALLY hit the PARTY!! We did pretty well, and wound up winning $20. We played some more, and when we were down to $15, we decided to leave. So, we walked away up $10... not too bad. Overall, we lost for the trip, though.

Even though it was still early for our flight, we decided to head back to the airport. We stopped and got gas in the car, and luckily stumbled upon a gas station that had Ethanol gas, which our rental car took, and it was only 3.21 as opposed to 3.69 for regular gas. Woo.

We dropped the car off at 11:00, and then headed into the airport to check our bag. We were both EXHAUSTED from having gotten up so early, and we just wanted to be home, and go to sleep.. but alas, we still had two hours to wait for our flight, and then another 6 hours of travel before we would finally be home!

Our flight left at 1:00am on my BIRTHDAY, September 27th! (This is where the days started to blend together!)

I was getting lots of messages on Facebook, and texts from people saying Happy Birthday! Woo Hoo! :)

The woman who sat behind me on the plan was INSANE. She arrived, and found someone else sitting in her seat. Now, at this point, I was on her side, because the people who had taken her seat just wanted to to sit together, even though they picked seats that weren't when they got their tickets. SO-- The woman wanted her seat, because she wanted to be by the window. Not a bad thing, so eventually the people got up, and she got to have her seat. THEN she started getting CRAZY! She was making snide comments about how the woman who sat there before her stole her blanked, and saying things like, "My blanket is gone! That's strange.... I wonder where it went." "I'll just ask for another one... SINCE MINE IS MISSING" "Whoever sat here before me must have taken it!" And she just KEPT saying that stuff over and over... it was like OKAY, WE GET IT!

Then as they turned off the lights in the plane and prepared to take off, a beacon of light comes from her seat. Yes, you guessed it... she was wearing a LIGHT attached to her head for reading. Aside from it being a little annoying, the flight attendant came by and reminded her to "turn off all electronic devices." She said she didn't have any, and he said, "Well, what is that on your head?"

THEN as the flight FINALLY took off, she asked one of the flight attendants for water, and then like two minutes later, asked ANOTHER one. He was like, "Do you want two waters? You just asked her for water, too! Do you want one from me and one from her?"

What a mess.

Anyway, I managed to sleep for a good portion of the flight, and then we had to change planes in Minneapolis. So, we arrived there and had about 20 minutes to get to the gate for our next flight. This one was a MUCH smaller plan, but it had a ton of empty seats!

There were plenty of empty rows, so Dan sat in the row behind me so we could each have more room and stretch out. I tried to sleep as much as I could, but I kept getting woken up by the light, and the noises.

The flight attendant on our second flight was wild. She was really nice, but she looked like one of the PanAm flight attendants from the show last night. She was all perfectly done up.

We landed at JFK at 10:45 and then we collected our luggage and waited for the car to come pick us up. I was so exhausted, I was dozing off in the car!

When we got home, we had something to eat, took a shower, and then watched some of this past week's Desperate Housewives. Finally, after our long journey, we took a nap!

I slept for about two hours, and Dan slept for about three. My mom made dinner tonight for my birthday, so we had planned to go over there around 5:30. When we woke up from our naps, I took some time to get the pictures off of my camera, and ready to show everyone tonight.

My mom made chicken with corn, broccoli, and baked potatoes for dinner! We arrived at about 5:30 and gave everyone the details of our trip! We had a nice dinner, and hung out for a while. After dinner, we had a little slideshow of the photos, and it was actually interesting for us since it was the first time we had seen our pictures.

Then we had cake, and everyone sang Happy Birthday! I opened presents, and then it was about 8:30, and we departed for home!

I have been getting so many birthday messages all day long! Every time I turn around, there another one! :) It's so nice... And thank you, everyone!! :) It really made my day! Frank, specifically, has been making my day special, by sending me tweets every hour or so! He planned to send me 28, since that's how old I am.. but stopped at 25, and told me I'm 25 now. I guess I'll take that! :) Thanks, Frank!

With all of the traveling, and the strangeness of today, it hasn't felt like my birthday... but then again... don't I say that every year anyway? Plus, I spent a lot of time at home today, and I would have just been at work.... I'm sure that wouldn't have been very birthday-like!

So, one more year older... although I have to say, I am very unhappy about getting up there in the years! 28 is pretty crazy! I am happy to report, however, that I was told that I look like I'm 22 at the pool at the Wynn this week, and so... I will say that if I look somewhere between 22 and 25, and I very happy. In fact, I may just start telling people I'm 25. How will anyone know? I think I should go with it.

Anyway, It's time for bed!! It's been a long entry, and I have to get some sleep before it's BACK TO WORK tomorrow! Ahhh! The dreaded return to work after a vacation! :P

Until tomorrow...

Goodnight. :)