Up at 06:15... beautiful morning! I got dressed and went out to smoke and take a few more pictures, then got coffee and took it back to the room. No free coffee here, dammit! Showered with Karen, it is going to be a wonderful day!

17:28...

And it was a wonderful day. We hiked/bussed along the west rim... after a few morning clouds, the sun shone for the rest of the day. You can't drive to the observation points along the rim, the only access is by shuttle-bus or foot, but the shuttles run every fifteen minutes, and the trail is mostly paved and pretty safe. However, the wind was blowing pretty good, and it was damned cold if you were wearing only jackets (like the dummies we were) and you weren't sheltered from the wind. And the wind was blowing from the southwest, straight off the rim, making me even more insecure looking over the edge. Once again, I steeled my nerves and did the best I could... after all, if I didn't look into the canyon, what was I doing there?

Up until this trip, I didn't really know what the phrase, " a breathtaking view" was... but I do now. Breathless... more than just a word. This is a wonderful place, and I'm here with a wonderful woman who is just as amazed as I am.

We scheduled a bus tour to the eastern rim/desert view for the afternoon, and it was wonderful. A short cute woman about our age named Nancy drove the bus and was our guide and explained everything to us. She was bright, vivacious and intelligent... she had been here six years, originally coming to study the Anasazi and staying because she loved being here. Or was it the Havasuzi. Hell, I dunno. That tribe that was here for 200 years and then left of died out or whatever they did. Anyway, she knew the geology and archeology of the region very well and explained it to us in laymans' terms and made it all very interesting.

The tour took all afternoon, and we did see a lot of stuff, but no wildlife whatsoever... Nancy had told us that there were many elk around, and I kinda wanted to see one close up, but no luck. We went clear to Desert View and the Watchtower, which was pretty impressive in itself. There were quite a few viewpoints that we went by, simply because there was not enough time to do them all. Karen and I will hit them tomorrow on our way out, though.

Later...

Karen and I are exhausted, but we want to go to the Arizona Steakhouse and eat tonight here at Bright Angel and watch the sunset. As I mentioned earlier, it was windy today, raising the dust, and also a little cloudier, all the makings of a good sunset. Last nights sunset was disappointing... it just got dark. And even the Grand Canyon isn't impressive in the dark.

But the stars are...

Again later...

I really did a stupid thing. I made Karen freeze and then I ran away from her. She got upset about this...

OK, the whole story: We walked up the rim to the east about sunset; it was cold, and the wind was still blowing. Karen gets cold easier than I do, and she didn't want to stay out on the rimwalk with me while I waited for the sunset to get some pictures. So... I thought that I asked her to go wait in a sheltered place nearby. She misunderstood me and went down to the Arizona Steakhouse to put our name on the waiting list. Meanwhile, I was looking all over for her.

I went to the steakhouse, and it was very crowded in the waiting area, but I didn't see Karen. I went back out, then down the path a ways, then I thought that I'd better go back and look again, since I might've missed her in the crowd. Nope, no Karen.

I went back up the path where we'd originally parted and looked around, then went into a gift shop there that had several nooks and crannies in it, so I had to check them all. No Karen.

By this time, I was sure that she was back in the room and furious with me, so I headed back down the rim... and there she was, 100 feet away from me, arms akimbo, shivering and furious. She had seen me leave the steakhouse the second time, but she couldn't catch up with me, so she waited... and waited.

It was going to be an hour or more before our name was called at the steakhouse, so we went into the cocktail lounge in Bright Angel to wait and have coffee. I profusely apologized before, during and after coffee for being a stupid male and by the time we got back to the steakhouse I was back in Karens' good graces. I must say, I am an outstanding apologizer.

We had to wait another twenty minutes or so, but dinner was well worth it... I had a filet mignon and Karen had the salmon; I think that I made the better choice. The filet was every bit as good as a North Star Steak, and Karens' salmon was a small portion and not particularly well done, and Karen was not impressed.

Back in the room, Karen took a long hot shower and finally got warmed up. I'm going to go smoke and look at the stars for a while out on the rim, then take a shower and hit the sack too.

Plan: get up early, hit the points on the east rim that we'd missed yesterday and head for Lake Powell.

Later...

Beautiful night for viewing the stars, even though there was a waxing half-moon; the moon made the canyon somewhat visible and there was a spooky beauty there that is not present during the daytime. Fascinated, I stood on the rim until I was about three-quarters frozen.