Matt, Lindsey, and Amelia in Rochester.

We visited our friends Matt and Lindsey in Rochester on Friday night. It was really good to see them and meet their daughter, Amelia. She is really, really cute. We had a good time talking and catching up, and they had even made an apple pie. Huzzah! We ate it with ice cream. Double huzzah! We went to bed a bit after midnight and slept really well. We had breakfast of coffee and freshly made muffins (thanks, Lindsey!). Delicious! Then we hit the road for St. Catharines.

A big thank you to Matt and Lindsey for their wonderful hospitality. We had a super time with you, and it was great to catch up.

Grand Central Terminal.

We finished off our day in Manhattan by walking to Grand Central Terminal. The inside is massive and beautifully ornate. It was great to watch all the people going hither and thither. As we were walking toward the subway line, we saw a bunch of guys break-dancing. Huzzah!

We walked something like 25 kilometers on Tuesday. I don't think we beat that in Manhattan, but the cold wind certainly made it feel like we did. Three cheers for Jack Frost, who is apparently alive and well.

Grand Canyon.

We visited the Grand Canyon from Sunday to Tuesday. It’s hard to put into words such a spectacular place.

The drive from Moab was long, and the sun felt hot through the window. However, by the time we got to the Grand Canyon, there was a lot of snow on the ground around the rim. And it was cold. The rangers at the gate had built a four-foot-tall snowman. Brrrr.

We drove along the rim and took in the view, which was amazing. I even threw a few snowballs into the canyon. Huzzah! We saw a lot of elk on the road on our drive to the campsite, but we got there just fine. We ate a quick dinner, played Quiddler, and hit the sack.

The next morning, we ate pancakes and then drove over to the Backcountry Office to get a permit for the canyon. We got the permit, snapped a few photos of the mules, and then packed up and got ready for the hike into the canyon.

The hike down was really good, although it was cold in the shadows. It took us three hours to reach Indian Gardens, our campground in the canyon. We set up camp, and then hiked all the way down to the Colorado River. We dipped our feet and hands in, ate a snack, snapped a few photos, and then hiked back up to our campsite, where we ate chili for dinner. A big highlight of the evening was watching the full moon rising over the canyon. We played a couple games of Quiddler and then slept.

When we woke up in the morning, we packed up, ate a couple Powerbars, threw on our packs, and started the arduous climb out of the canyon. It was tough, but not as bad as we thought it would be. We did the fist 1.7 miles in 50 minutes, and the next two 1.5-mile sections each in 45 minutes. Not bad. When we got to the top, we weighed our packs, put them in Geronimo, and then got beer and hamburgers at the park restaurant. Then we hit the road for Gallup, New Mexico.
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Arches.

We went to Arches National Park in Utah from Friday to Saturday last week. Despite a run-in with some locals, we had a great time and saw a lot.

We drove from Bryce Canyon and went through Capitol Reef National Park. The drive was beautiful,although we did get a warning from the Utah Highway Patrol. Let's just say someone whose name starts with an R was driving a bit fast.

We picked up supplies in Moab on Friday night and then got to the park. We found a site and set up our tent. Then we noticed a tag on the campsite post. So we moved our tent over to the next site, which had some stuff on the picnic table; however, it didn’t look occupied and there was not a tag on the post. So we ate dinner, had a couple games of Quiddler, and went to bed.

Then, just as we were falling asleep, we saw headlights pointing into our tent. Apparently, in Utah it is a common practice to claim a site by throwing your stuff on a site, not by actually filing in the tag, posting the tag, and paying for the site. So I got out of the tent to talk it out with the dudes in the big SUV. According to Rhoda, I was civil without backing down, and I did get him to admit he had been lazy and made a mistake. It ended up working out fine for us.

During the day, we did a lot of hiking. We saw some beautiful landscapes, including several dramatic arches. The hiking was challenging at times, especially when we had to climb a bare rock face and go up and over a pool of icy water. We saw the really famous arch, although it was really crowded by Delicate Arch. We even saw petroglyphs for a second time. The first time was in Capitol Reef.

By the end of the day, we were really tired. And we had a mouse living in Geronimo. So we checked in to the Archway Inn and emptied Geronimo. We washed and cleaned Geronimo. We got some beer and pizza. It was a good night.

The next morning, the mouse was gone and we packed up Geronimo and hit the road for the Grand Canyon. Huzzah!