Grand Canyon I: Kaylee

I (Kaylee) have been deemed this weeks blog writer, so Ill fill you with what we've been up to since the last update. On Friday, The Welcome Wagon (aka: The Hoff) rolled into Phoenix Sky Harbour airport at about 9am. After popping about 30 balloons that decorated The Hoff for my arrival, we went to Starbucks where, while basking in the amazing warmth (well, I thought it was amazing. The Dutchies may argue otherwise), we ate breakfast/stole wifi. After Sander finally shaved off his beard, we then we hit the road. We drove for what seemed like forever (which is likely due to the fact that we had to stop every 15 minutes because Jasper has the bladder the size of a pea), and finally rolled into the luxurious campground in Grand Canyon National Park. Our first day here, Frans and Jasper headed to the Rangers station to get their back country hiking pass. Sander and I figured this would be a great time to go get groceries/gas up, so we hopped in The Hoff and hit the road. Seconds before we were about to exit the park, Sander asked “where's the park pass”. This sent us into a frenzy of searching, yielding no results. We headed back to the campsite where Jasper and Frans joined the search. The poor Hoff was violated as we strip searched him. Just as we were about to give up, Jasper figured it'd be a great idea to check the pockets of the pants he wore the day before. Guess what he found? After that adventure, the four of us hit the road one more time, and went to get groceries, where the adventure continued. We arrived at the General Store, which one would assume has more than canned goods and a few rotten vegetables for sale. After paying an arm and a leg for the little bit of decent food we could find, and a bottle of wine (which we had to prove we were old enough to purchase by showing our passports because apparently a drivers license isn't valid photo id), we set out to stock the fridge. However, a faulty grocery bag made this seemingly simple task far more complicated than necessary, for our bottle of wine smashed, starting an argument with the store employees. After a lengthy exchange of rather unpleasant words, we were finally on our way back to camp (with a free, new bottle of wine).

Over the next few days, Jasper and Frans were gone on their 4-day hike across the canyon. I can't offer much detail on this excursion, but I can wager a guess based on the state they returned in: it was super warm, and they're sick of eating wraps. During these four days, Sander and I did a nice day hike along the rim of the canyon. We also attended a lecture about how the Grand Canyon was formed, simply to avoid the cold. One would think the Grand Canyon is a warm place to vacation. Guess again. The high for the day was 8ºC and overnight, a not-so-comfortable -7ºC. We ate breakfast with an elk, and after a couple of days were finally able to enjoy the sunshine we expected.

Oh, I also forgot to mention, during the first night, aliens abducted Frans and replaced him with a goateeless lookalike. Check it out: