Days 49 - 51: Flagstaff/Grand Canyon - Hey, didn't see you there, guess what I just did?

Hi readers. Emmie here to detail our trip to Flagstaff, Arizona and that big hole in the earth, the Grand Canyon.

It’s about 4 hours driving from Phoenix to flagstaff and I had agreed to take the first driving shift. If you read the post about Phoenix, you would know that the night before we left, we were up until almost 4AM watching Harry Potter dominate Voldemort, and listening to all the nineteen-year old boys in the theater cat call Hermione. So naturally, Katie and Parm passed out, and I was BORED. We were driving through the middle of nowhere with huge cacti. It looked like John Wayne would pop out from behind a rock formation at any moment.

About an hour into the drive, Parm and I had a huge squabble about her putting on her seatbelt, despite her feeling ill. I did the famous Calland “ants on the road” tactic to demonstrate that I am not a trustworthy driver. “Ants on the road” is when you swerve the car around as if to avoid imaginary ants on the road, something my parents did when we were younger, not to prove a point, but just for fun. Looking back on it now, it’s amazing they didn’t get picked up for drunk driving. But anyway, my insistence on seatbelts has been brought up no less than 50 times since that day, but I will not apologize for my love of safety.

I actually pulled this off of google images- but there were some signs like this in Arizona.

We arrived at the home of two of our favorite people, Mike and Curtis Franklin in Flgastaff in late afternoon. Mike and Curtis are college friends of one of our co-workers and best friends at Epic Collin, and we're willing to overlook the fact that they went to Michigan. 

Unfortunately, Curtis is gone this month for work, but we would get the chance to hang out with Mike. Upon our arrival, Mike was in the process of whipping up an amazing steak and vegetable dinner. I offered to help by doing the artichokes. Unfortunately, I have never prepared artichokes before, and even with Katie’s expert help, our attempt to grill the artichokes was a complete and total fail. See pic below. The rest of the dinner, however, was delicious.

I'm shrugging at my failed attempt at artichokes, not my glasses. Although my glasses are also ridiculous.

Meg, Mike's a keeper.

Mike also invited his friend Jerry over, and the plan was to head out on Jerry’s boat later that evening. After chowing down on the delicious steak dinner, we donned our swimsuits and drove out to the lake to meet up with Jerry and his wife Leslie….AND ANOTHER adorable doggy with a persons name, Toby.

Our favorite thing about Toby, besides the fact that he is a wiener dog and would bark anytime anyone went in the water, is that he had a doggie life jacket. This caused us to brainstorm different costumes we could produce for Toby around Halloween. A hotdog costume, a submarine, a canoe or any kind of long boat really (Parm wants me to mention the Titianic) or most obviously, a corndog.

Toby!

With daylight waning, Jerry and Leslie helped us each get prepped to go wakeboarding. Both Parm and Katie were successful in standing up, for at least small increments, on the cute pink and purple women’s wakeboard. As dusk fell and I attempted to strap on the wakeboard, I could NOT get my feet in. Seeing I was having major issues, Jerry came over and asked what size shoe I wear. Upon finding out I am a women’s 11, he chortled and brought over the wakeboard designed for men. It was adorned with a very masculine looking skull and cross bones. I often joke that it looks like a tranny lives in our apartment due to the size of my heels, but needing a tranny wakeboard is adding insult to injury. That being said, I think the broad base and badass designs helped the cause, as I was able to stand up for quite a while on the last run.

Katie getting ready to wakeboard

Sweet action shot pre-fall, I think this is Parm.

Leslie churning the butter...j/k she's explaining proper form.

Nightrider Emmie

Then we anchored the boat and joined some of Mike’s friends on the shore for a bonfire. We made some awesome smores and met some new people. My favorite part, however, was how at the end of the night, we were shuttled back out to Jerry’s anchored boat by one of Mike’s co-workers in a wooden canoe he made himself. Additionally, he had us tell our best jokes, and his joke was pretty sweet….but clearly not that sweet because I can’t remember it... I should also mention that we had had some wine at the bonfire. So in place of that joke, I will tell another. Two peanuts walked into a bar, and one was assaulted…REH! What do you get when cross an elephant and a rhino…ELEFINO! Or my personal favorite, stolen from the writers of Big Bang Theory, a proton and a neutron walk into a bar. When the neutron orders his drink the bartender says "for you, NO CHARGE." I'll be here all week.

The next morning, we had grandiose plans to do a day hike but Katie and Parm woke up with the same fever-like symptoms and sinus infection that I had woken up with in Carlsbad. Hence, they declared it a vacation day from anything overly active, especially at high altitudes (and wouldn't you know it, Flagstaff is actually around 7000 feet elevation.) After scarfing down some delicious croissants a la Mike, Mike and I decided to go on a hike to Mt. Humphries a little after noon. We hiked from about 9000 feet to 1200 feet to what's called the saddle, and I would be lying if I said I wasn’t pretty exhausted. 

Ring! Ring! Bananaphone

I had to take breaks every 3 minutes or so toward the top and Mike, who is in phenomenal shape, politely and patiently waited. I was trying to space out my breathing so that it didn’t sound like I was about to have a heart attack. It was worth it though because at the top it looked like this:

Super squinty, but scenery behind is gorge...

See?

On the way down, Mike casually mentions that he runs this trail. RUNS it. I could barely climb it at a slow lumber. We had some good discussions about friends and religion and Arizona. It was about 4 and a half hours round trip. On the way down, we deviated from the trail and off-roaded. After seeing poop the size of a dump truck, I quizzed Mike about what we should do if we saw a mountain lion or bear. Then we saw a ginormous pile of bones, that looked like it was probably a deer carcass or a human, hopefully the former. We took a picture and texted it to Katie and Parm and told them Mike had been eaten. They didn't seem alarmed.Then Mike convinced me to climb the ski lift to take this sweet pic.

In the meantime, Katie and Parm were feeling a little bit better and decided to take a bike ride and complete some obstacle challenges at a local park. 

Katie attempting the monkey bar challenge. Apparently this is about 50 times harder now than it was in grade school.

I'm not sure what the objective was here, but it looks like Parm conquered it.

We rendezvoused back at the house, and then headed to Pizzacleta, a pizza place owned by one of Mike's friends for dinner in downtown Flagstaff. It was delicious.

Mike was down to show us a good time, but we were so tired that we ended up just heading back home. We did not force Mike to watch old episodes of the Bachelorette, however, so we'll call it even, right Mike ;)

The next morning we got up and got ready to head to the GRAND CANYON. After about an hour and a half drive with our bikes in tow, we arrived at the visitors center. Instead of explaining the sequence of events in detail, I'm going to let the pictures plus captions do most of the talking. It should be mentioned that Mike is an excellent photographer, so he took many of these pictures. Thanks Mike!

Deciding that we should take the South Kaibob trail from our location at the South Rim visitors center, and hike to Ooh-Ahh point. Yes, that's a real place. Then we watched the video at the visitors center, because that's what we always do. At first Mike was skeptical, but he later admitted he loved it. Then we bought GEAR at the gift shop.

Eating some sandwiches made by Katie before heading out on our hike. Mike also mandated that we drink at least half of our water bottles.

Hydrating at the provided water stations. Apparently a lot of people who try to hike all the way down to the river and back in one day end up getting heat exhaustion and have to be lifted by helicopter out of the canyon. We won't be hiking that far, but water is still key.

And we come full circle! This is just like the vending machine we saw at Mt. Rushmore.

First view of the canyon...it's HUGE! It's almost like there are canyons within the canyons. The colorado is so far down that from many angles on the rim you can't even see it. Also, the Grand Canyon is viewable from space. Nuts.

These posters were plastered everywhere. Interestingly, most of the people who are rescued from the Grand Canyon are males between 18-40 and look like the guy pictured, because they attempt to hike all the way to the canyon floor and back in one day, and underestimate the impact of the heat and length of time it takes. Dudes being dudes and thinking they're invincible, usual deal. But if they really all look like the guy on the poster, you can sign me up for the rescue team (wink!)

The description of South Kaibab trail says that you will "hug the cliffs." I think they meant the TRAIL hugs the cliffs but we hugged the cliffs anyway. I even slightly straddled the cliffs. Also, there was mule poop everywhere.

Watch out for heat exhaustion. And if you don't know what it looks like, this sign depicts it. Apparently you stand in a lunge stance and put your hand on your head. Seriously though, it was incredibly hot.

The canyon is awesome.

The view from Ooh-Ahh point after an hour or so of hiking...OOOOOHHHHH....AHHHHHHHH

Check out those switchbacks...pretty awesome.

Mike, our fearless leader, at Oooh-Ahh point. There were squirrels trying to get into our day bags, and he was helpful in scaring those away. We also met some volunteers who let us know there were storms on the way and that they had already had to rescue someone out of the canyon that day, so we should head out. It should be mentioned that the volunteers were sixty-something women and were in better hiking shape than we were. Off we went.

If there was audio to this picture it would go something like this, "uhhhhhh....uhhhhhhh (Wheeze)....uhhhh...SO STEEP" We also played a game where each one of us had to say hello to any passerbys a different way. So if I said "hello" Parm would have to say "whatup", Katie would have to say "HOLLA" and Mike would have to say "how ya doing" and so forth. We weirded a few people out.

Katie doing one of the things she does best- opening wine...one of her favorite wines actually. We drove for aways to find a place to have a snack mid-afternoon (we HOUSED some hummous) and we off-roaded a little bit to pop open some bubbly...illegally (shhhhh). You can catch a glimpse of the Colorado River in this pic if you look closely enough. 

Shortly after our picnic, it started raining as predicted by the volunteers. Here we are running in the rain from the parking lot to the Grand Canyon watchtower. Good action shot Mike.

Parm contemplating the meaning of life from the watchtower. #probablysomethinginvolvinghashtags

As we drove back from the watchtower towards the main visitors center, we were all exhausted from the heat and our hike. At Mike's suggestion, we got some ice cream near Bright Angel Lodge and sat down on the wall bordering the canyon. Within a few seconds the rent-a-cop pictured above began lecturing us on how dangerous it was to sit with our legs over the wall facing the canyon and noted that a piece of the wall is missing (by Parm's caboose) because a few years ago a teen fell to his death. Apparently he was standing on the wall and a stone came loose. I hadn't been condescendingly scolded in a few months since leaving my job, so I guess it was about time. Emily just rolled her eyes, I zoned out and made sweet love to my ice cream, and Katie was nodding politely. Mike got a photo.

They should have just shown us this picture. Dramatic.

After a brief visit to the Kolb studio, we walked about a quarter of a mile from Bright Angel Lodge to the spot where Katie's parents got engaged! We did a reenactment. But the best part of the whole scenario is the endangered California condor flying in the background of the picture.

Then we biked up Hermit trail to get a good spot to view the sunset. Mike took this picture of K-tizzle one handed while biking. Stud.

In my defense, we were instructed to make faces as if we were falling over the edge. If you had to give an academy award for most accurate depiction, who would it go to? Maybe not the most LADYLIKE or PRETTY face, but most accurate...

Parm attempting to throw me over the edge, probably because I kept making fun of her for using hashtag (#) in front of everything she said about a year after it was cool. Pretty sweet rainbow over the canyon though, right?

Planking because I told my sister I would.

Watching the sunset. The girls next to us were Australian and were downing the wine.

So gorgeous. You know...(insert something insightful about life here)

Self-timed jumping picture on the edge of the canyon! Mike has really upped the ante on our pictures for this trip. Skillz that killz.

We rode our bikes back in the dark and then stopped on the way home from the GC for some Wendy's. It was delicious. We managed to stay awake long enough to get home safely and Mike was very gracious about being submitted to girly music choices. Mike made some final suggestions about where we should head next on our great adventure and the next morning we got on the road and headed toward Telluride, Colorado.

A huge shout-out to our host, Mike Franklin!! Mike you are amazing. Top 10 reasons we love Mike, skillz that killz edition:
1. He can cook anything and often does (granola, scones, steak, the list goes on)
2. He can make you feel good about your hiking skills, even though he runs the trails you can barely walk
3. He is an excellent photographer and isn't opposed to taking approximately 30 jumping pictures until you get it right
4. He is dating Meghan Wons. Enough said.
5. He can take pictures of you, while riding a bike with no hands, up a hill, on a bike with no gears.
6. He makes sure you don't die while riding back to the car in the dark, sternly ordering you to pull off the road.
7. He informs you gently and tactfully that this entire time you have been driving around the country with bikes on the bike rack incorrectly but somehow manages to not mock you about it (at least not to your face)
8. He has great suggestions for outdoor destinations
9. He took a whole weekend to show us Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon!
10. He introduced Parm to what may be her favorite song ever by the Lonely Island. Although I would wager McGucks would want this off of the skillz that killz list :)

Thanks so much Mike for your hospitality. Hope your rafting trip was amazing! Oh, and a shout-out to Curtis Franklin for letting us sleep in your bed while you're gone and for the bike rack. HANDS LIKE GLUE! :)

Next stop is Telluride..."snow falling down...I was waking up in that sleepy little town"

Days 46-48: Phoenix - Would you lay by the pool in Phoenix in July?

Katie here as your guide through our Wild West Tale through south-central Arizona.

Ok, Phoenix was not so much of a Wild West Tale. But the drive there felt like we were on the set of one, and the heat was reminiscent of what I imagine it was like filming them. Our tale included seeing most all of my family (4 grandparents, 2 aunts, 1 uncle, and 3 cousins), laying by the pool, shopping, and seeing the midnight premier of Happy Potter 7.

The drive from Carlsbad to Phoenix is about 7 hours of the most dramatic and beautiful desert.

My grandpa Heavsy, having made the drive many times himself, recommended that we bring a few gallons of water with us in case we got stranded on the side of the road. Thankfully, we had lots of water onboard and Snoop made it through the dessert uneventfully.

Mimi and Henry (who all the grandchildren call ‘Heavsy’), my grandparents on my mom’s side, greeted us at their home with a delicious dinner and wine. Mimi and Heavsy have lived in the same home since 1962, so not only did we all have our own beds, but I was able to share a place that is so reminiscent of my childhood and family lore with Emmie and Parm! There are family photos everywhere, and every item in the house has a story. We gave Emmie and Parm the mini-tour, but I have a feeling they'll be back for the full tour someday :)

The dinner turned into a family affair when Uncle John and his girlfriend’s three beautiful daughters dropped by for dessert (rum cake, Oreos and milk) and Aunt Kay-Kay came to say hello.

We had a ball meeting the girls and hearing about their summers, and then played a rousing game of 'Guess that Name,' which involves guessing the name that someone is thinking of that starts with a certain letter. For example, what name am I thinking of that starts with an 'A?' It's a girls name. Ashley you say? No. Amber? Nope. Apple? Ding, ding ding! As a middle school teacher, Aunt Kay-Kay schooled us all at this game. Gold star for Kay-Kay!

We forgot to take a pic with everyone at the table, but at least got one of the table before we sat down.

The night ended early with grand plans for us to get early up the next morning to head to the Paradise Valley Country Club’s pool. We were thinking it would be good to avoid the intense heat of the midday. Well, that plan didn't go so well. We ended up getting to the Country Club at 11:30, which was just in time for lunch with Mimi, Heavsy and Kay-Kay. The PVCC Men’s Club, while it has a menu, has a ‘we’ll make whatever you want’ policy, so we all had fun putting twists on some standard menu items.

Did you know that you can lay by the pool in the summer in Phoenix? I had my doubts, but Parm, who was a lifeguard in Oklahoma City for several summers, insisted that laying by the pool in 100-degree-plus weather in the middle of the day was in fact quite fun. And she was actually right, it was great! We laid out on a luxurious U-couch (like an L-couch, except with one more arm) after lunch with a big umbrella and a slight breeze, and even took a few dips in the pool.

Swimming studs Parm and Emmie.

Emmie and I entranced a few high school football players (bottom right) while playing an intense game of splash ball. Unfortunately, we did not entrance the lifeguard who looked like a young Brad Pitt, but Emmie did get to talk with him because he stepped on and broke her sunglasses. Another pair of sunglasses down the drain. And she didn't even get his number.

When we got back to Mimi and Heavsy's house, my Aunt Chrissy and Cousin Jeanette had just arrived from the airport for a weekend visit. We shared some cream cheese and salsa dip and regaled each other with stories from our trips. Jeanette had just visited Syracuse, where she is being recruited to play women's hockey (what a stud!).

That evening, Kay-Kay and Mimi cooked a delicious dinner, with gourmet cookies to boot. Since Emmie and Parm were new to the family, Heavsy had them tell us all a little bit about them, and Lauren, Jeanette and Julia had some great questions about our college experience. It was wonderful to have so much family together. Thank you to all for being there!

Kay-Kay sets the most beautiful tables.

Potato salad, tomato-motzerella salad, asparagus and pork chops. Quite the line-up.

Kay-Kay, Mimi, Me, Parm, Heavsy, Lauren, Jeanette, Julia & Chrissy at Kay-Kay's place

The next morning, we woke up early** to meet Aunt Kay-Kay for breakfast at Le Grand Orange before heading to the Nordstrom Annual Sale. If you’re in the Phoenix area, you should definitely make a stop at Le Grand Orange – it’s a bakery/pizzeria/super cute gift shop/take-out food market/wine shop (and I’m probably missing something).

**Disclaimer: early is a relative term for us these days. Early means that we were up by 8:30 and out the door by 9:45.

You will all be glad to know that I was the one who purchased the least number of goods at Nordstrom! It was a big day for me – I only bought athletic gear. Emmie and Parm loaded up on very cute sale items and were able to squeeze them in another bag in the car (we allowed an extra bag since we only had a few more stops left).

At the Microsoft Cloud store in the mall after our Nordies expedition. Not as cool as the Apple store, BUT their touch screen display was quite fun and Emmie and Parm played the Kinnect Dance game outside the store for a bit.

After gathering our overnight things at Mimi and Heavsy's and figuring out how we were going to shuffle some of the family cars around, we headed over to Grandma & Grandpa (Mary Jane & Bill) McGuckin's place in North Scottsdale. Emmie, Parm and I whipped up dinner (we can now go from grocery bag to sitting down to dinner in 17 minutes when we cook the chicken strawberry poppyseed salad), had some chocolate raspberry ice cream and Sprinkles cupcakes, and proceeded to play with a stuffed monkey that Grandma had gotten as a gift.

Grandma's toy monkey is no ordinary stuffed monkey. It plays a song ("I Know You Want Me" by Pitbull) and dances to the song. We were more than amused by this little monkey and tried to replicate its dancing. One thing led to another, and before we knew it, we were all dressed up in funny hats and/or glasses and dancing along with the monkey! Of course, for our dear readers, we recorded the dance, but YouTube is not cooperating, so look out for a link to the video as soon as it posts!

We got such a hoot out of Grandma's glasses that she kept them on for awhile, even while answering the phone (as pictured above).

After our MTV-worthy music video filming, Emmie, Parm and I chatted with Grandma and Grandpa for awhile.... and then, went to go see the Harry Potter 7 midnight premier!

We were definitely the oldest non-parent people there. It's a good thing that Parm had her cloak of invisibility (pictured below) to ward off the questioning stares. My cousin Jeanette was at the very same movie theater and snagged us some prime seats (middle of the theatre, aisle seats, doesn't get much better. Gold star for Jeanette). The only problem was that I was sitting next to the most emotive young woman in the whole audience. She would laugh at scenes that weren't supposed to be funny (but we all admit were kind of awkward), scream when it was not at all necessary, and chat with her friend sitting next to her at the most inopportune times. Next time, I'll bring my magic wand with dragon hair in it to pacify any brash audience members. The whole experience was validated by a pre-show wizard magic show-down, played out by high school boys in Harry Potter gear (video to be uploaded once YouTube cooperates). Now that would not have happened at a regular showing!

Parm with her cloak of invisibility and me with my magic wand getting ready for the movie. It was probably my favorite Harry Potter movie - highly recommended.

Since we were young rebels that stayed out until 3am the night before (we would have gotten home 15 min earlier, but I had some trouble figuring out how to release the emergency brake on Grandpa's Prius - whoops!), we slept in late and then just hung out by the pool once we were up. It was a rough life, staying with the McGuckins ;)

Parm floating in dreamland...

Practicing some ballet moves.

'Why are you taking my picture? And can I have my sunglasses back now?'

We scooted back to Mimi and Heavsy's to pick up the rest of our gear, then hit the road to Flagstaff to see our good friend, Mike Franklin. We had such a fun and relaxing time in Phoenix, and are so grateful to all of my family who hosted us and came out to see us!