Are We There Yet? Smashmouth

DAY TWO:  SMASHMOUTH

Last night was the first time baby B had ever slept away from home.  Despite her trepidation about the playpen and new surroundings, she did fairly well.  Actually slept like a baby in the traditional sense of the phrase.  I was not so lucky thanks to that train switching yard.

Nevertheless, we happily sailed out of Barstow and headed for the California border.  The appearance of some little gifts from the travel fairy helped the hours of driving pass uneventfully.  I wish the rest of our day had followed suit.

We were so excited when we finally arrived at the Grand Canyon.   We tried to check into our somewhat fancy hotel, but they informed us that the info online that said they allowed dogs was, in fact, NOT accurate.  So they shuffled us off to a neighboring dumpy little lodge.

We unloaded a few bags, heedless of the fact that it was almost dinnertime, and took off to see one of the 7 wonders of the world.  Which was absolutely breathtaking.  And majestic.  And dizzying in its grand scale.  It was totally worth the effort it took to get here.  I’m just sorry that we didn’t come sooner.  I probably would have enjoyed it even more if I didn’t have to be in a constant state of panic about the possibility of B tumbling down those gorgeously striped canyon walls.

 

We wandered the rim trail for a little while, trying to ignore B’s demands for her baba which we had left in the van.  Naturally.  Then we headed to the popular Mather Point.  It was a little crowded for our taste, but it had fences! 

This is my shadow family waving.  Easiest way I've ever gotten a whole group shot.

J was standing by one of those fences, looking out on the amazing view while wiggling his top front tooth.  He’s been pushing and pulling and yanking on that thing for several weeks now, trying to get it to come out.  But apparently, it was just holding on for a better location.  He lost a tooth at the Grand Canyon.  Talk about potential future bragging rights.  Seriously cool!  I mean, how many people can really say that?

So he threw his tooth in.  He probably wasn't supposed to do that, but there's not much we're willing to do about it now.

By this time, there was no more putting off the needs of our toddler.  She was vocal enough about wanting her baba that everyone at Mather Point knew what she wanted.  So we headed back to the van, but I got stuck trying to photograph an elk who was not being a good model and then had to wander around for 45 minutes trying to find my people.

We were all feeling pretty hungry and rough around the edges by the time we pulled into the dumpy little lodge.  We were in the process of unloading and somehow our signals got crossed about who was supposed to help B out of the van.  So she fell out, face first, onto the pavement.  She was crying loudly, bleeding profusely, and everybody was pointing the finger of blame at someone else.  It took a while before we could assess the extent of her injuries.  She split her lip open and possibly chipped a tooth.  And even though it was really swollen and looked horrible, it fortunately didn’t appear that she would require any professional medical attention.  That was a giant relief.  Both for her sake and the fact that we really had to stick to our travel schedule if we didn’t want to pay for this whole relocation ourselves.  Per diem reimbursement only works if you mostly play by the rules.

Today wasn’t meant to be a late night, but it was nonetheless.  I’m afraid that this might be turning into a pattern.  But we’ll see what tomorrow brings.