We took a spectacular tour of Monument Valley today. To really see the valley well you take a open back truck tour which goes into the dirt roads of the valley that are forbidden to private citizens. It is all run by Navajos.
The drive began at 8:45am and within a minute I realized I was not dressed warm enough. The forecast said warm temperatures today, but the wind said “Stupid, you should have taken a jacket like Paola and the kids…†Read the rest of this entry »
Orr cried a bit at 5:45. This gave me an opportunity to wake up and go jogging while enjoying a beautiful sunrise over Lake Powell and the mountains mesas and buttes in the distance. A mesa is a rock plateau that is longer than it is high. A butte is a rock plateau that is taller than it is wide. That’s our lesson of the day, and now back to the blog.
We had an easy morning. Our first scheduled event was a noontime tour of a special slot canyon called Antelope Canyon. Read the rest of this entry »
Today was a laid back day with no heavy itinerary. We booked a 9am cruise on a passenger boat that took us to 2 nice canyons on Lake Powel. The canyons names are Antelope Canyon and Navajo Canyon. Lake Powell is an artificial lake, created in the early 1960’s by the Glen Canyon Dam. Ever since, this entire region has become a meca for water sports. People rent or buy house boats (like an RV but for lakes) and spend a week on the water. The cheapest cost few 10’s of thousands of dollars, the big ones several million.
Today was a long and fun day. Shir woke me up at 4am. Since I was planning on a solo hike early in the morning, this was a truly early start. After 2 shuttle buses, I was marching down the South Kaibab trail at 5:10am. It was still dark, but the full moon did not yest set, so it was like hiking with a huge overhead flashlight. The hike itself is not too difficult, 6 miles round trip, goes down a bit and then comes back the same way. The views, as you can imagine, were awesome. The light on the canyon walls and rock formations changed every minute as the sun was rising. I was going crazy with the camera, someone please hold me back. I think I have a blister on my shutter release finger.
We got up before 7, after a relatively quiet night. Orr woke up just once looking for her pacifier. Since we wanted to somehow celebrate the Seder, we decided to spend the morning touring and the afternoon preparing. We took a shuttle bus to Yaki point where the views as usual were spectacular. It was a very windy morning thogh, so we did not stay long. We then visited yet another viewpoint called Mather’s point. After that we entered the relatively new visitor center to rest. Just to clarify, Paola and I rested, the kids had fun running around without us chasing them because there was nowhere for them to fall off into. During this rest stop we also managed to hear a park ranger leading a group through the various exhibits and explaining the geology and wonders of the Grand Canyon.
Around noon we did another set of laundry and some grocery shopping and got back to our campsite by 2:30pm. We played a bit outside and then began preparing for the seder. Ron helped Paola make Kneidalach (Matzo Ball soup). I struggled with barbequing some chicken. We had an early and abbreviated seder as the kids were very hungry. Ron sang “Ma Nishtana†very nicely and drank 4 cup of “wineâ€. He also sang a song in english that he learned at school
“Oh listen, oh listen King Pharoh,
Please let my people go,
They work so hard all day
Please let them go away…â€
Paola was unfortunately feeling not so well this afternoon, a sever headache. Luckily the kids were behaving OK, so we were able to get them all to sleep by 8:30pm.
Good night.
-Hemi
We barely woke up after a long and sleepless night. The girls took turns driving us crazy. So we decided to take it easy in the morning.
Our first mission was to fix the flat tire on the stroller. Luckily we found a repair kit in the general store near our campground. We drove to a hotel staff parking lot / garage that had an air pump as well. Although 25 years have passed since the last time I fixed a bicycle flat, I managed to get it right an after about 30 minutes we were good to go.
We drove to a parking lot near Bright Angel view point and walked to the rim for another stroll along the magnificent views. But the kids seemed very tired, after all they were awake part of the night as well. So we returned to the RV at around 11am, and put them in their bed. And the party began. After an hour of trying to get them to sleep, they only got more and more excited and played (very nicely I might add) with each other.
Today we woke up very early after a quiet and peaceful night at the Lake Mead Campground. We had 250 miles of driving ahead of us, so we wanted to get out as early as possible. Paola got the kids organized quickly as I untethered the hookups (water, sewer, electricity). By 7:45am we were on the road. After a long 15 minute drive, we stopped at Hoover Dam to let the children run around a bit before the really long drive.
We then started a long and straight drive of 50 miles south on US93, then 150 miles west on US40. Read the rest of this entry »
We woke up after a not so great night. Each of the kids took a turn waking us up, and Paola had to tend to them. I got up at 7am to do a little jogging along the main valley road. You could already feel the heat waves in the air. When I got back to the campground we quickly got organized and headed out of the park. Our last point of interest was Dante’s point, an amazing lookout over Death Valley from 5500 feet (1700 meter).
We bid farewell to this great park, drove back to Las Vegas, and then continued to Lake Mead, an artificial lake and now national park, created by the Hoover Dam. Before checking in to our campground, we mistakenly took a wrong turn that led us to a beachfront on the lake. We took the kids to throw rocks into the water, but Ron and Orr had different ideas, and although the water was rather chilly, they proceeded into the lake. We took off their cloths and they splashed around for a while.
We arrived at the campground rather early compared to previous days, around 4pm. This place does have a full hookup, but no internet, bummer. I put some wood to burn in the firepit near our RV and we took the kids to the washroom to bath. When we got back, we put some steaks and corn on the grill, and 30 minutes later we were feasting on our Shabbat meal. We then went to a nice vista and took some family photos with a beautiful backdrop of the lake and the surrounding mountains.
We have a long day of driving tomorrow, so we wanted to settle in early tonight. It is 8:30pm and 2/3 of the kids are sleeping. Come on Shir, you can do it…
Good night.
Hemi
Today was a fun filled day for us. After only one nocturnal incident where Ron asked for a blanket at 4am, we slept till after 7am and woke up to a nice warm day in our campground. I took the kids outside to frolic while Paola prepared avocado salad for breakfast. We ate on the picnic table next to the RV, and added a picnic tablecloth to the growing list of items we will need for our next RV trip.
After a long yesterday, we woke up around 8am today after a relatively good night sleep. The girls did not require our assistance at night, which is good, because our bed is above the front seat and getting down at night when you are a zombie is a bit dangerous.