Family Vacation!

On the way out of Durango we went and saw Mesa Verde National Park, which was completely incredible. There was a hike to see an ancient cliff dwelling we took. I really can’t say much except that everyone should go see it, because you’ll be blown away. Here's a picture of one of the cliff dwellings:




The stop for that night was Kayenta, Arizona, a small, dusty, windy town where the gourmet eating place was the nearby Sonic Burgers, to my dismay. As we pulled into the hotel, an old Mexican man came up to us and did this story about how he was from Alberta, Canada, and he needed “a thousan’ bucks” for gas to get back. When we said we couldn’t give him any, he asked, “ Well, you have three, brutha? Cmon, three bucks brutha?” After we assured him that we could not, he finally went away. That night we ate dinner at the hotel restaurant, which I can tell you right now will be on the “disapproved” section of my blog restaurant listing. My dad ordered this taco and spent most of the meal searching around with his fork like a miner mining for gold for the beef supposedly in it. (He only found three microscopic pieces.) Noone slept well that night, and we ended up leaving at about eight thirty. There was a drive through this place north of Kayenta called Monument Valley that was supposed to be incredible, so we drove there. There were all these weird rock formations where the ground would be completely flat then sprout up into a giant sculpture. Here's a picture of some of them:



We were on an Indian reservation, and on the way out there was this stand that advertised handmade Navajo jewelry. I wasn’t so sure I wanted to stop, but my mom insisted, and we ended up stopping for about two hours and buying tons of necklaces and bracelets and pottery and sand art for the best prices I’ve ever seen in my life. The people were very friendly and were making the things right in front of us. After we finally left there was another stand about a mile later, and we stopped at THAT one and bought three more things, and then after that there were about five more we stopped at and had the best time on the whole trip. My favorite was one little place where the woman selling her jewelry loved piano music, and gave me a necklace in exchange for one of my CDs. My dad also bartered two of his CDs for two bracelets. Here’s the booty.



After all the stands, we drove into Grand Canyon National Park. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such an amazing natural place. I kept feeling like if I reached out , I would rip open a big poster of the view. Here's Sadie in front of the Grand Canyon:



The next morning there was some more stuff to see, and then we started driving to Las Vegas. On the way there was ANOTHER rock shop my dad and I got a big calcite rock at (my mom stayed in the car, I think seeing stuff my dad and I might buy makes her feel ill) On route 66 there was a great little burger place we ate at where the guy running it played all sorts of tricks on us, like squirting fake mustard at my mom, who shrieked loudly. His name was John, here he is:


He got me with that one too. Shortly after there was a place called the Grand Canyon caverns, and my dad and I took a tour. It’s this giant cavern 220 feet below the ground with all sorts of crystals and formations growing. The guy doing the tour turned off the lights and you couldn’t see your hand a half inch in front of your face. And now we’re almost in Las Vegas. We just drove through this little booth near the Hoover Dam where they look at you to make sure you don’t look like a terrorist.(we passed easily).