Hey, this is our third installment on this trip. We realized we forgot to mention a couple of other highlights from LA. One of the nights we were there we also went to Little Japan, which is near the downtown core. It’s such a cool little neighbourhood and really looks like the photos we’ve seen of a downtown Japanish neighbourhood... in Japan, well you know what we mean. Also, we stayed in this cool Mexican neighbourhood, where no one seemed to speak English, except the guy at the local laundromat, who cleaned our clothes for us.
Also, at the Doubletree we stayed at, every morning they charged us a different price for breakfast, depending on how old they decided our children were; ranging from all three being under 10, to not charging for the kids at all.
The train station in LA (Union) was an absolutely gorgeous structure. The wait for the train was unremarkable, except that everybody stood in this really long, organized line until it was time to board. Then all hell broke loose and all started running in a chaotic way to get on the train.

ARIZONA AND NEW MEXICO:

So the night on the train from LA to Flagstaff, Arizona, was our worst so far. It was packed, so we didn’t have as much room to spread out, plus there was a group of people in our car who were talking noisily, laughing about how they’d never been on a train before, getting up and moving around, etc. Now we know what you’re imagining, a group of teens or twenty somethings. But no. These were a bunch of obnoxious, loud, silly and inconsiderate.... senior citizens.

We got off the train in Flagstaff at about 6 in the morning (the early arrival time also contributed to the yuckiness of the ride). We found a greasy spoon and had breakfast there and received a recommendation from the waiter who told us that if we wanted to get really good coffee, we should really go somewhere else called Macy’s, the crunchy granola, universityish hang out. It was totally cool and really did make the best coffee we’ve had so far.

We headed off to Grand Canyon, in yet another SUV (no not hybrid....burn fuel, yay!!). The Grand Canyon is such an awesome experience. You have no idea you are approaching something so spectacular until the moment you arrive and see it. We only looked at it briefly that first day, as a thunderstorm broke out, and we had been told by the rangers that you can’t be near the rim during lightening. After the rain we set up camp, in a gorgeous campground. Note: this was after Noah had a “hysterical hissy fit” (his words) when we were briefly considering hotel-ing instead of camping because of the rain.

During the two days at the Grand Canyon, we went on hikes each day. The first, Bright Angel Trail, was more touristy but the views were spectacular. On the second day we did a much longer and more rigorous trail, called the South Kaibob trail. There were much fewer people, and the views were even more spectacular. By the end we were exhausted, low on our water and a bit dehydrated, but exhilarated by our adventure. We refilled our water bottles at the top and each drank like a litre or so. On that second hike we went 4 miles down into the canyon, where it was close to 40 degrees celsius, but an extremely dry heat. Rob kept going on and on about how he loves dry heat. The hard part about hiking the Grand Canyon is that the easy part is when you’re going down, and the hard part is the return, so it can be deceiving for people. We learned that 250 people need to be rescued from the canyon each year.

On the first day we also went to an Imax movie about the Grand Canyon made by the National Geographic Society. It focused more on some of the history of the early discoverers of the canyon. Much of it was a dramatization of these early explorers, using replicas of the original boats. So we got to see some amazing white water rafting on fairly rickety looking boats, and the cinematography was one of the highlights of the movie.

Words can’t describe how beautiful the Grand Canyon is; it should be on a list of the things you need to do before you die or perhaps before you catch your next cold.

The last day in Arizona we spent back in Flagstaff getting hair cuts for Rob, Diane, Noah and Aaron (i.e. not for Aviva!). Aaron and Rob both had their hair cut by a stylist who had just gotten out of jail. We learned this by eavesdropping on a series of conversations. The recent trip to jail didn’t seem to be a problem, as both of them got great cuts anyway! Noah and Diane’s stylist also gave great haircuts, despite not having gone to jail recently. Of course we also returned to Macy’s for more awesome coffee and an incredible vegan “chicken” sandwich. Next we headed off on Route 66 to New Mexico.

One of our pit stops along Route 66 was Winslow, Arizona where we committed obscene touristiness. We took a picture of ourselves “...standing on a corner in Winslow Arizona.....”. And that is all we did in Winslow, Arizona, ‘cause it really ain’t “such a fine site to see”. In fact, route 66 was kind of a grave yard of has-been towns. It was more sad than interesting.

We had intended to go to Santa Fe next, where we had a reservation in yet another campground, however, by the time we got to Albuquerque it was really late, so instead of making “a left toyn in Albakoyki”(*Bugs Bunny) we decided to stay in Albuquerque. It was a pleasant surprise, as so many had told us that we shouldn’t bother with Albuquerque, we should just go straight to Santa Fe. The first and only day that we had there, we went to the museum of Atomic Energy. This older vet/volunteer gave us a whole private guided tour of the entire museum, including how atomic energy works, the history of the creation of the atom bomb, the testing that went on in New Mexico, the tragedies of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the Cold War.

On our way to dinner, we discovered that Noah’s toe, which he had been complaining about for a day already, seemed to be infected. So....we trotted off to the local pediatric urgent care centre at the University of New Mexico. Here’s the story that Noah and Diane told Aviva about what happened during that visit: an intern came in and examined Noah. She began stabbing Noah repeatedly in the toe to try to drain it. There was blood everywhere, so Noah started screaming really loudly and hyperventilating. They had to give him oxygen. Then the pediatrician came in and said “What the hell are you doing?!” to the intern, who burst into tears. The End. Here’s what actually happened: the intern drained Noah’s toe successfully and sent him off with a prescription of antibiotics and a dinner recommendation at a local New Mexican restaurant, which turned out to be outstanding, just as the care at the hospital had been.
What was even more outstanding, was the fact that Noah swallowed his first couple of capsule pills! He was so proud of himself.

The next day, we caught the train back to Chicago. What we mean by “caught” is: first we missed the train in Albuquerque. And there is only one train per day. We had arranged to drop the car off at the train station Hertz. Only problem: there is no Hertz at the train station. So as we stood on the train tracks with the train rolling away, with the kids...and Diane, all wailing, the conductor shouted to us that we could try to catch them in Las Vegas, New Mexico, two stops ahead. So we raced the clock to get to Las Vegas, New Mexico, making arrangements with Hertz along the way. We got there with 45 minutes to spare, when Rob and Diane got the bright idea that we now had enough time to go and get some food. Rob and Aaron took off to get burritos for the family at the local bakery, and when they returned not 10 minutes later Diane was frantic since the train was already pulling in. As we raced once again to get on that same train, Rob tossed the car keys to the train station attendant and we managed to make it in the nick of time.

We took the train overnight to Chicago, arriving in time to make our Second City reservation for that evening. In case our kids didn’t already know how to swear and talk rudely about the birds and the bees, Second City completed their education. It was actually another highlight of the trip; we all laughed our heads off, even if it was quite raunchy and political as well as extremely politically incorrect.

After breakfast and a morning stroll on the Magnificent Mile (the most elegant stretch of Michigan Ave in Chicago) where we got our next read aloud book in our series and a shi-shi picnic lunch (chevre, baguette, and jelly beans) we are now on the train to Detroit, once again annoying our co-passengers with our loud, obnoxious behaviour.

Tomorrow we drive our mini-van back to Toronto.

Talk to you later,
RANAD (always capitalized)