It's pretty mind-blowing, and in this season, not ridiculously crowded. Hint hint, guys.
21 thoughts on “February 17, 2013: The Grand Canyon”
Co'C was sitting in draft mode; I clicked [Publish]
I will make it there sometime in the next couple years. My sister and brother in law live at the south rim so I hve no excuses.
My daughters were initially awed, but the scope of what they were seeing was a bit lost on them. After some quick looks, Sour Cream mostly wanted to play in the snow (granted, she's barely seen any since 2010). Soon enough, Skim joined her.
For my part, every new frame of reference I discovered made it more awe-inspiring. After about twenty minutes, I took a real good look across the canyon and saw a big, long hotel on the rim that had to be miles away. I took a ton of pictures, but even as I did it, I knew no shot by any camera could really capture it.
Funny thing I learned: at the Grand Canyon's gift shops, the most popular book is Death in the Grand Canyon, a startlingly long tome outlining the long list of people that have lost their life by falling in, succumbing to the elements, or other.
I browsed through that book when I was there, and it seemed to be that nearly every death was people getting lost and/or succumbing to the elements. In fact, I don't remember anything about random tourists falling over the edge, and I have to imagine that some have.
I flipped it open and that's actually the exact part I read. I think it was 54 people (documented) that have fallen in.
My bro-in-law pulled the body of a Japanese tourist out of the Canyon a couple months ago.
When I got out of the Corps in November 2006, not-yet-Mrs. Hayes flew out to accompany me on the drive back. We made it to the Grand Canyon on the first day and decided to stop so we could see the Canyon in the morning light. When we got there the next morning it was deserted, which was fantastic. We ran into one other couple, a husband and wife in their late sixties or mid-seventies. They said they were from Kansas. We chatted a few minutes at one overlook, then moved our separate ways on down the rim.
Well, about five minutes later I looked back the way we came, and here were the older Kansans, standing right on the edge of the rim, both looking down. I froze, and n-y-Mrs. Hayes followed my eyes. I didn't know what to think - was one of them terminally ill? were they going to pull an Isidor & Ida Straus? were they just in the thrall of the Canyon, oblivious to the danger?
They stood there for a few minutes, and I strained to stay quiet, not wanting to startle them into leaping over the edge. Then, with a casualness only a pair of Plains Midwesterners could muster, they seemingly shrugged, turned around, and walked away from the edge.
It was then I learned that no one from Kansas has any concept of the vertical.
The Mrs and I did a fly-in (fly-over?) trip with pilot friends while I was in grad school in SD. The flight over the Sierras [edit: err, Santa Rosa mountains?] (in a six-seater airplane) was...and adventure for the stomach. the views were spectacular, however.
We did a touristy hike down an hour or so, which was fun.
also was there as a teen with my parents. I was less enamored, as it was part of a Bataan Death March "vacation". I don't think I really appreciated having my birthday dinner at some restaurant near the rim.
Not too long ago, there was soul searching going on over the way coaches have being lionized and hero worshiped to the point of them being above the law. The consensus was perhaps everything should be toned back a little bit.
Its not a coach, but the weekend long 'celebration' of Micheal Jordan's 50th birthday shows that nothing has really changed when it comes to hero worship and sports figures.
While I don't have much trouble skydiving or being in planes, I was constantly terrified at the Grand Canyon. I kept having visions of myself, my wife, or other people falling off the rim, watching them break every bone on their way to the bottom. I even had visions yesterday of Miette running off and falling off the edge and I nearly threw up.
I couldn't shake those visions either. Miette did at one point start running across a snow patch that led up to an opening in the gate separating us from a huge drop. She wasn't even aware of the canyon; she was too focused on the snow. On the way up I was a little neurotic about the idea of one of them falling in, but kept telling myself that there had to be absolutely no way. Sure enough, once I was there, it was clear that there were tons of ways to fall in. I was a tad on edge every minute until we left.
I saw one guy not only going to the edge, but jumping down onto lower ledges. Not, climbing down. Literally jumping. His girlfriend was screaming at him she was so terrified, but he was totally care-free. I wanted to yell at him, too.
You guys really aren't encouraging me to take 3 kids there.
Do you think that will work on a 12 year old?
Depends upon framing:
1. Stay in the van or
2. Kid leash.
Maybe Banjo could make you a custom-order 12yo size.
Real Dick Bremer continues to put fake Dick Bremer to shame:
I see where the steroid scandal hit Russia the other day...tragic!Oh, A-steroid...never mind.#roseannerosanadanna
So, who's going to be the Gophers' next men's basketball coach? I'd be excited about the VCU coach, but it may be a difficult sell even though the new AD had been his AD before.
I'm pretty sure Smart spurned overtures from Illinois last year before they hired Groce, and I'd say Illinois is pretty clearly a better job than Minnesota, so even with the connection I'd call that a long shot.
With Tubby's $2.5M buyout (and the fact that they're still paying buyout money to Mason, Monson, and Brewster) I don't see him going anywhere yet if he doesn't want to leave and if they make the tournament. Even with losing to Iowa they're still in position to do so - I think they'd have to lose at least two of the Nebraska/Penn St./Purdue games and then lose in the first round of the B1G tournament to fall out of the field. I'm not saying that's not possible with these guys, just saying it's a lot of bad left to happen.
Co'C was sitting in draft mode; I clicked [Publish]
I will make it there sometime in the next couple years. My sister and brother in law live at the south rim so I hve no excuses.
My daughters were initially awed, but the scope of what they were seeing was a bit lost on them. After some quick looks, Sour Cream mostly wanted to play in the snow (granted, she's barely seen any since 2010). Soon enough, Skim joined her.
For my part, every new frame of reference I discovered made it more awe-inspiring. After about twenty minutes, I took a real good look across the canyon and saw a big, long hotel on the rim that had to be miles away. I took a ton of pictures, but even as I did it, I knew no shot by any camera could really capture it.
Funny thing I learned: at the Grand Canyon's gift shops, the most popular book is Death in the Grand Canyon, a startlingly long tome outlining the long list of people that have lost their life by falling in, succumbing to the elements, or other.
I browsed through that book when I was there, and it seemed to be that nearly every death was people getting lost and/or succumbing to the elements. In fact, I don't remember anything about random tourists falling over the edge, and I have to imagine that some have.
I flipped it open and that's actually the exact part I read. I think it was 54 people (documented) that have fallen in.
My bro-in-law pulled the body of a Japanese tourist out of the Canyon a couple months ago.
When I got out of the Corps in November 2006, not-yet-Mrs. Hayes flew out to accompany me on the drive back. We made it to the Grand Canyon on the first day and decided to stop so we could see the Canyon in the morning light. When we got there the next morning it was deserted, which was fantastic. We ran into one other couple, a husband and wife in their late sixties or mid-seventies. They said they were from Kansas. We chatted a few minutes at one overlook, then moved our separate ways on down the rim.
Well, about five minutes later I looked back the way we came, and here were the older Kansans, standing right on the edge of the rim, both looking down. I froze, and n-y-Mrs. Hayes followed my eyes. I didn't know what to think - was one of them terminally ill? were they going to pull an Isidor & Ida Straus? were they just in the thrall of the Canyon, oblivious to the danger?
They stood there for a few minutes, and I strained to stay quiet, not wanting to startle them into leaping over the edge. Then, with a casualness only a pair of Plains Midwesterners could muster, they seemingly shrugged, turned around, and walked away from the edge.
It was then I learned that no one from Kansas has any concept of the vertical.
There's always this way to get a perspective
The Mrs and I did a fly-in (fly-over?) trip with pilot friends while I was in grad school in SD. The flight over the Sierras [edit: err, Santa Rosa mountains?] (in a six-seater airplane) was...and adventure for the stomach. the views were spectacular, however.
We did a touristy hike down an hour or so, which was fun.
also was there as a teen with my parents. I was less enamored, as it was part of a Bataan Death March "vacation". I don't think I really appreciated having my birthday dinner at some restaurant near the rim.
Not too long ago, there was soul searching going on over the way coaches have being lionized and hero worshiped to the point of them being above the law. The consensus was perhaps everything should be toned back a little bit.
Its not a coach, but the weekend long 'celebration' of Micheal Jordan's 50th birthday shows that nothing has really changed when it comes to hero worship and sports figures.
While I don't have much trouble skydiving or being in planes, I was constantly terrified at the Grand Canyon. I kept having visions of myself, my wife, or other people falling off the rim, watching them break every bone on their way to the bottom. I even had visions yesterday of Miette running off and falling off the edge and I nearly threw up.
I couldn't shake those visions either. Miette did at one point start running across a snow patch that led up to an opening in the gate separating us from a huge drop. She wasn't even aware of the canyon; she was too focused on the snow. On the way up I was a little neurotic about the idea of one of them falling in, but kept telling myself that there had to be absolutely no way. Sure enough, once I was there, it was clear that there were tons of ways to fall in. I was a tad on edge every minute until we left.
I saw one guy not only going to the edge, but jumping down onto lower ledges. Not, climbing down. Literally jumping. His girlfriend was screaming at him she was so terrified, but he was totally care-free. I wanted to yell at him, too.
You guys really aren't encouraging me to take 3 kids there.
Do you think that will work on a 12 year old?
Depends upon framing:
1. Stay in the van or
2. Kid leash.
Maybe Banjo could make you a custom-order 12yo size.
Real Dick Bremer continues to put fake Dick Bremer to shame:
So, who's going to be the Gophers' next men's basketball coach? I'd be excited about the VCU coach, but it may be a difficult sell even though the new AD had been his AD before.
I'm pretty sure Smart spurned overtures from Illinois last year before they hired Groce, and I'd say Illinois is pretty clearly a better job than Minnesota, so even with the connection I'd call that a long shot.
With Tubby's $2.5M buyout (and the fact that they're still paying buyout money to Mason, Monson, and Brewster) I don't see him going anywhere yet if he doesn't want to leave and if they make the tournament. Even with losing to Iowa they're still in position to do so - I think they'd have to lose at least two of the Nebraska/Penn St./Purdue games and then lose in the first round of the B1G tournament to fall out of the field. I'm not saying that's not possible with these guys, just saying it's a lot of bad left to happen.
Marco Rubio Water Bottle Giveaway night. Classic.