Grand Canyon Adventure

Since Iver's school was closed for all of Presidents' Week, we decided to take a few days off and made a trip out of it to Arizona (when we turned down Niall's request for a "home" birthday party, we spun our trip to also be a celebration of his fourth big day! And then we held our breath, hoping no one got COVID right before we left town...).

American Airlines recently (I think within the year?) started offering a Humboldt County- Phoenix flight, which was just over two hours long!  Despite the early departure time (5:43 a.m., which required getting up in the three-o'clock hour), and some bad traffic on the way to Flagstaff due to an accident, twelve hours after we left our northern California home, we were standing on the South Rim of one of the seven natural wonders of the world, the incredible Grand Canyon.  I've been to the Grand Canyon a couple of times, once with my family during high school and once in around 2006 when I was doing a rotation at the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale (a Phoenix suburb) but it had been a while, and this was my first time going in winter.

The late afternoon sun into the canyon was gorgeous and the kids were excited to be out of the car as we explored some of the "Trail of Time" on the Rim Trail (~7000 feet) west of Bright Angel Lodge. The canyon is about 277 miles long and ten miles wide.

There was snow on the ground both at the rim and on the canyon walls!  The temperature was in the 50s at the top when we got there.

(These photos don't capture the teeth-gritting from me as I watched my energetic boys look over the canyon rim, with the one mile drop below... I really enjoyed much more the parts with railings!)

The sun setting near Hopi point was spectacular! 

On our first full canyon day, we got a bright and early start to hike down Bright Angel Trail.  We had spectacular sunny weather.

We said hi to the mules before we started trekking (when I came with my family here that one summer, I remember riding mules down to Phantom Ranch).

Niall did a really good job walking downhill ("I'm four, so I can walk now! Plus, gravity is pushing me down so it's easier!").

Lots of switchbacks!

There were some icy patches on the upper part of the trail (many people hiked with crampons but the kids and we did pretty well without) and some of these lovely "ice falls." 

Snowy snacktime!

Hiking up when you're more tired (and carrying a toddler) is tricky, but far better in the winter than in 120-degree heat! 

We explored some more of the rim trail at popular Mather point, and the kids enjoyed playing hide-and-seek among the rocks at Mather Amphitheater. 

In the afternoon, we drove eastward in the park to the Desert Watchtower.

(photobomb-Mom)

I'm pretty sure this building was off-limits but, well... Iver. 

The views of the Colorado River were the best in the park, in my opinion!

The kids enjoyed sunset icecream because, even in winter, it's never too cold for some 'sicles! 

On our last morning in the Canyon, we headed to the South Kaibab Trail. It was a bit steeper than Bright Angel and the weather was not as good--very windy; however, it was less icy for us and thus less tricky to navigate with the kids.

We had to park a bit of a ways from the trailhead, as the road was only shuttle-accessible.

(Joker, wanting to hitch a ride)

Niall was a bit colder and less happy on this hike so got carried both down and up, but Iver was a real trooper despite the gusts. We didn't see many kids on this trail.

We hiked a bit past this Ooh Aah point, which was 1.8 miles down the trail.

The canyon views again were stunning!

Leaving the park, we saw some roadside elk, which reminded us of home.

While rain/snow is in the forecast for tomorrow, we really lucked out on sunny canyon weather and had a wonderful trip to one of the most unique places in the United States, if not the world!  While masks were required indoors, there were many people out and about and it almost felt as though the pandemic was behind us and travel/tourism was again welcomed, which was special. While traveling with young kids (with a canyon drop to worry about) is pretty challenging at times, I hope they're both old enough to have lots of positive memories from this visit! 

   

Generation iPhone

On our drive home from school yesterday, Iver asked me if he could bring his  "phone" to school for sharing on Friday end-of-week party day (To be clear: my seven-year-old doesn't have his own "phone." We have a couple of old iPhones at home, one of which we use for its sound machine app at bedtime and for travel. It still is able to be used like a camera to take photos [not backed up anywhere] but the kids do not play on it at home or take it anywhere).  My response to him was "absolutely not." We had a discussion about how cell phones are for mature, older kids/teens and adults. He asked at what age he could have one. I told him that Kelvin and I would have to discuss this as he got older (my inclination [besides my preference, which would be never, because I think smartphones are evil and wish we could return to a world of flip-phones and without internet access or text-messaging (see 2021 blog rant here)] is high school but no earlier than middle school. One of my favorite evidence-based parenting experts, economist and mom Emily Oster, has weighed in, and says 12-ish).  I told him I got my first mobile phone around age 21 in medical school.  

Iver then went on to ask me how people called one another if we didn't carry around phones.

We talked about voicemails (we used Audix in college) and land lines with answering machines (we have cordless phone linked to our cable account but it only gets called by spammers and we never make outgoing calls on it, although we taught Iver to dial 9-1-1 if needed in an emergency). Believe it or not, we survived without instant access to one another or FaceTime!  

Speaking of "old phones," I then asked him if he new what a rotary phone was.

"Yeah," he replied. "One of those phones on the road." (Road-a-ry phone...)

Me: "You mean like a payphone?

Iver: "Yeah, like are found in the booths."

Me: "Oh, ha ha. That's another way we used to make phone calls. But a rotary phone is one when you have to dial/pull the numbers in a loop to call someone." (Here's a classic video of two teens trying to figure out a rotary phone).

Iver: "Well, how do you operate a pay phone?"

Me: "You had to drop in a quarter or some money and then dial your number. You had to have the number memorized or written down."

Iver: "Well, where does the money go?"

Me: "Into some sort of lockbox. Then it gets collected."

Iver: "How? Who gets to keep it?"

Me: "Hmm. I guess the phone company, or the city, I suppose."

SO many questions!

It's really amazing how much technology has changed in the last couple of decades. We've talked about how there didn't used to be "streaming" music or shows on demand, just the radio, VHS, and… cassette tapes (which I'm pretty sure he couldn't identify…as some of my favorite Mom podcasters would say, "OLDILOCKS ALERT!"). I am making it a mission to teach my children about the all of the tech of yesteryear and other devices of my youth (Here are some top tech devices for 80s kids). Just wait until they hear about floppy disks!