Grand 3

I really needed this vacation because I had a rough couple of days the previous week at work involving lots of heavy lifting and table moving. My favorite bruise was this puppy from walking side-on into a wheeled cart. Whoops. 

Two weeks later, just starting to brown. Cool!

The bench at the shuttle stop had some impromptu horse art.

This morning we woke up to a 12 point buck hanging out near our campsite. He was using his antlers to lodge into low branches and swinging his head back and forth to break off the branch and eat the leaves. His antlers were enormous! We watched him for twenty minutes probably.

We wanted to get to an early start because this was the day of our below the rim hike. We chose the Bright Angel Trail and walked down to the 3-mile rest stop. The way down was a good 3 times faster than the way back up. We saw some mules working, Grace got made fun of by a cowboy (twice), met lots of cool people, and watched a lightning storm in the distance near the end of it.

It's so steep, the path zigs back and forth. Most of it is loosely pathed out, but there's still some fun rock climbing and sliding.

MULE.

The landscape changes the lower you get and it was so wicked to see the rocks up close and from different angles. Water breaks meant camera breaks. Stay hydrated!

This area reminded us of the Land Before Time. It basically is. 

Seriously, so cool. 

Post-6-mile hike shot!!! Let's just say we were sweaty. 

Proud hikers!

We had absolute perfect timing with the weather. It started to drizzle as soon as we were on the shuttle back to the campgrounds. We decided to wait out the storm at the lodge and chilled there with some magazines and naps for a couple hours. For dinner we made really good beans and tortilla soup and played old card games, which was a lot of fun.  #elkproblems also started.

Grand 2

Yes yes, driving is all fine and dandy, but here begins shots of the canyon. Now, I want to preface basically every single picture by saying the digital camera in no way fully captures the depth and beauty and extremes of the Grand Canyon. I think I took less than four shots at sunset before just giving up because it couldn't be captured as beautiful as real life. 

But I still took lots of pictures! We stayed at Mather Campground which I thought was a perfect balance between roughing it (no electrical lights, tent) and amenities (bathroom, potable water). Free shuttle transport was a short walk away and the busses took you nearly anywhere along the rim that was hikable in the vicinity. Our first day we walked along the rim from Mohave Point to Hermits Rest.

This picture's giving me some retroactive vertigo

Some Pride Rock reenacting with Henry the sloth.

I had to do it, Canyon Selfie. But now I've proved I was there!

That coffee press was the most invaluable aspect of every morning, let me tell ya. Heller brought a little propane stove so we could make eggs and toast, grilled sandwiches and coffee.

Cute candid shot of Grace & Emily

Old school Instagram- an actual photo of my food! Sorry, but I was just really proud of our grilled cheeses.

After hiking in the morning, I read at our picnic table in the sun for a couple of hours. It was so pleasant out, no where near as warm as it has apparently been in Wisconsin. There was a  General Store near by where we picked up some fire wood for marshmellow melting. 

Grand 1

In case you didn't know, I went to the Grand Canyon recently! My friend Heller wanted to visit the National Park so she booked a camping site on the South Rim for a couple of days and next thing you know me and her two roommates are driving to Arizona!  It takes about 23 hours to drive there from Madison. Our game plan was to leave early in the morning (~7 am) Sunday, overnight in Denver, and get to Grand Canyon National Park Monday night. I condensed our first two days of driving into this one post since we really couldn't do much else. 

Leaving Madison we were caffeinated and ready to roll. Iowa was actually kind of pleasant and we wished we had made time to pit stop with our Paper Back Rhino improv friends. Nebraska was endless. I spent the first half of Nebraska wishing I was still in Iowa and the second half wishing I was in Colorado already. Spotting our first hills/mountains/bumps was exciting!

Driving across America is basically this for a while. Plan your rest stops accordingly

I very much enjoyed Heller's mom's car! It had a six-disc CD player and was pretty spacious for four girls. 

Driving with the sunroof down on a warm day is the best

'sup

Maggie has blue-removing sunglasses so I had to take a picture through them

We must be getting closer to Arizona!

So many plateaus.

WEIRD ROCK FORMATIONS!

I can see for miles and miles and 

The black line is what we traveled IN ONE DAY

Denver was a really cool city. Our hotel was quite nice (valet service) even though we weren't breaking the bank. We walked around downtown in the morning to get some Caribou Coffee, play an outdoor piano, and make fun of the Harley Davidson convention. The highlight of day two was definitely seeing the Four Corners. My brother made me promise to go and stand in four states at once and I totally agree. It was so cool. It's surrounded by Navajo tribe stands and has amazing 360˚ views.

One pair of feet per state

at the Four Corners

We spotted some fellow Wisconsinites in the parking lot! Throughout the trip we had 3 or 4 Badger shout outs. I think at least one of us wore something UW each day of the trip ;]

U-Rah-Rah

This night had one of the coolest sun sets of my life, since we drove right through it and there was literally nothing obstructing out view. I was the 4th shift driver so got to drive in Grand Canyon National Park. It's at least 27 miles from turning off the high way to getting anywhere near the park grounds and lots and lots of hills. We saw a coyote crossing the road and some elk in the woods. 

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Mid-summer bucket list update

Here's the list I posted on May 1st, edited to reflect end of summer:

1 Float in the Dead Sea
2. Go skydiving
3. Run a 10k
4. Become a licensed German teacher
5. Learn how to juggle
6. See the Grand Canyon
7. Attend a MMoCA rooftop film
8. Live in Berlin
9. Be in The Sartorialist 
10. Have a panda sit on my lap

How freaking great is that?

I want a kayak.

Before heading to North Carolina, we spent a couple days visiting my grandpa Dougie at his home in Tennessee. He lives in Tellico Village which is on beautiful Tellico Lake. Sam and I are such water rats, all I wanted to do was spend a couple days handing on the dock, kayaking around, and sunning on the water (which I did!). It was a relaxing start of a great vacay. 

 We went to Dougie's friends house because they live right on the water. These pictures in no way do their home and yard justice. It's stunning!

 

The boys had a golfing day, we had dinner and a jam session with a fun neighbor, then headed to North Carolina! So yeah, that was my summer break blogged in reverse. It's going to be a crazy August with packing up two apartments, moving into a third, driving to the Grand Canyon, then starting student teaching!  

CHRISTMANS

Can I just say I love family vacations? First of all, my family is really something else. Secondly, I got to get to know 8 new Christmans this past week! My grandpa's brother turned 70 a few days ago, so everyone got their butts over to his place in North Carolina for a couple days of family and celebration. I don't think I've ever had a family reunion, especially not for my dad's side of the family, and it was beyond great. Stan and his wife Pat live in the most gorgeous community with stunning 360˚ mountain views. One of the days, the boys (Sam, my dad, his dad, & Stan) went golfing and Pat drove my mom and me around their neighborhood to look at all the beautiful (and insanely big) houses. It reminded me of when I was getting my driver's license and my driving instructor had me drive to Katie Holmes' house in Toledo. 

Flat Rock, NC isn't a big town at all, but we had lunch at this great restaurant with fire-grilled pizzas. We ordered chicken pesto and wild mushroom.

There were many 4-person games on Stan's Simpson's pin ball machine.

I made it on the leader board!! It's not as impressive when you know that Stan's record is 118 million.

We had birthday dinner at the main clubhouse and it had a gorgeous huge veranda with views over the golf course.

We all wore black armbands to commemorate his aging haha.

Yo dog.

I learned the different between first cousins and a cousin once-removed, but I can't be bothered to decipher all our relationships so basically, everyone's my cousin if they're similar in age and an uncle if they're older than me. It was so great to meet Elisa and her husband Isaac. They live in California but we connected on facebook a few years back. My family is spread out as much as you possibly could be in the states so we rarely get to be all together.

Grace and me in our matching t-shirts from Ashville, NC :]

Christmans taking pictures of Christmans

Doug's family

The grrlz

The boiz, with a half badass pose.

My dad brought his banjo and backpack guitar so he and Jim had a great jam session. One night all the kids + Isaac and my mom got ice cream in Hendersonville (I had blueberry with graham cracker, that's what's up) and Sam unleashed the nastiest silent but deadly in the van on the way back and I was crying with laughter/pain from the smell. Fart jokes never get old, don't tell me otherwise.

We all agreed we must do more get togethers like this. Who knows where next, but I'm already excited to see everyone again.