What day is it today??!

After 1750 miles in 5 days, we have all pretty much lost track of time! Not to mention we keep changing time zones and are now 3 hours behind 'normal time'! I think we are all looking forward to Wednesday-- still three (!!) days from today when we will actually stay in one place for more than 15 hours! Despite being a bit road-weary, we are still having fun and totally enjoying the sites.

We entered Arizona at something like 6 am (local time) so the vistor's center was not even open yet! We did the obligatory pictures and then headed to the Petrified Forest/Painted Desert National Park. This was our first National Park of the trip and I had picked this stop mostly so that we could get a lifetime National Park Pass for PawPaw (which coincidentally also gets his entire vehicle in for free—woohoo! You knew we’d find SOMETHING to get for free on this trip, didn’t you??!!) Anyhow, I had orignially anticipated that this would be a quick stop/leg stretcher—but we stayed here almost 3 hours! The Painted Desert was also apparently a stop on Historic Route 66 and we actually found a site in the park that you can see the old telephone poles that marked the highway.

(This picture is especially for you, Caleb!!)

The petrified trees were also amazing—not so much that they exist but how many of them there are. We saw one area called the Crystal Forest that was just acres and acres of fossilized trees. We also made friends with a HUGE raven (Mrs. Pearce, you would have been proud of our attempts to imitate his call!). After a quick souvenir purchase of our own petrified tree/rocks as well as National Park passports for the girls (that they can get stamped at every NP we visit—way cool!), we were back on the road again.

The Grand Canyon is... well... grand! I know... not very original... but true. Words simply cannot do it justice. We oohhed and aahhed for well over an hour at the rim before taking the park shuttle & walking back to our campground where we grilled out steaks for dinner. Everyone is in bed now at 8:30 (which I guess still seems like 11:30 to them?). I think I am having the easiest time adjusting but that's probably because I'm a night owl anyhow...

Goodnight from one of the seven wonders of the world...