Saturday, August 21, 2010

Grand Canyon Day 3

Okay, day 3.  This was the day of the 20's.  Often rapids don't have actual names--instead, they just call it by whatever mile it is at.  So this day was full of nameless rapids in the 20's.  It was nearly constant rapids for a few hours.  Super fun, but that water is cold!  Of course, it was like that most days, especially when it was overcast..brr!  But sometimes you have to pay a little price for some legit rapids.

By the time we stopped for lunch, we were all quite chilled.  I remember we pulled over and when I jumped out I decided to walk up this little hill.  When I did, I realized it was so much warmer on top of the little hill.  I don't know if it was because the breeze was blocked or anything, I just remember feeling warm!  'Twas delightful.

One thing you have to understand about my family is how unbelievably sarcastic we all are.  It's ridiculous and might even be too much for some people.  But man, if we get going, there's no stopping us.  I love it.  Everything about it.  So anyway, on this hill, we see that some little sap had written a little message in the sand.  It said something along the lines of "Someday I will meet someone who is going nowhere and we will go there together."  Oh yeah, just the kind of person I would love to be friends with.  That honestly doesn't even make sense to me.  Basically this person is saying they have no goals in life and that they'd like to hang out with someone else who has no goals.  Cute.

After lunch, we went on this mini-hike dealio.  We had to climb up these pretty big and awkward rocks.  Once we climbed up them, we came to this cool gap in the canyon that had all these old fossils in the rock.  It was pretty cool.  Those trilobites or whatever ancient thing they are probably think they're pretty hot stuff for lasting this long and now everyone looks at them all the time...well, and walks on them. Ha.  After we looked at the fossils, we climbed around on rocks for a while because that's what you do.




We got back on the water and continued on for a few hours.  At one point we pulled over for the boatmen to do some scouting (or "scooting" as Kevin says).  When we did, these other boats pulled over as well.  They were full of teenage kids, my favorite.  For some reason one of their leader/guide felt obligated to talk to us...apparently my glare of disgust at their self-bailing boats didn't do the trick.  Anyway, he came over and was telling us about how they take your teenage children on these trips where their every need is catered to and they have all this time to play football and frisbee and where everyone sleeps in the same exact brand of tent ("WE  ARE THE DRONES.")  Oh yeah, and science.  They were the science kids.  Apparently they "test the soil and sand" in different areas of the canyon...aka raft down the Grand Canyon while pretending something educational is happening.  Okay, so they probably really were doing science. Then he goes on to say it's for kids ages 12-17 or something like that, and I'm like, "Wait.  Do you not see that we're already on this trip and so why would we want to go on that trip and that at this point there is only one person here that would be eligible for such a thing (because Tom was scooting)...unless you're implying that I look like I'm younger than 18 in which case I think you should move along and also you're hair makes you look like you never shower and also your swim trunks could be mistaken for booty shorts...I'm just sayin'."  AND THEN.  Oh, and then.  Then after he's finished his shpeel about science and I'm pretty sure I asleep and drooling, he goes on to tell us what we should do if we ever saw their group along the river.  He goes, "Yeah, and if you ever see us later on the trip we have this special cheer that you should yell to us.  You raise your hands in the air in the shape of a Y (like YMCA) and yell, 'Yay, science!'"  It was like he was just asking for it.  Seriously, the guy was asking for it.  I don't think he really realized what he had just done, but boy was I excited.  

His group went up to scout the rapid and take samples of sand and we headed through the next rapid.  After we got through the rapid, we saw them on the side, and I may or may not have gotten a little crazy with my "Yay, science!" deal, but it was fantastic.  I did it all the time for the rest of the trip.  Boy, do I love science.



That night we camped at a little area that was pretty clear of bushes and trees.  The boys spent quite some time playing in the sinking sand stuff when they were supposed to be bathing.  Every night as soon as we camped we would "bathe", although toward the end the water got pretty brown, so I don't even know why we tried.  The water was freezing, too, so it was never that enjoyable.  Anyway, every night I have to beg the boys to come wash in the river.  Half the time they ended up splashing water everywhere or playing in sinking sand or choreographing the "Baywatch Musical"--that was a crowd favorite.  This night was a sinking sand night and they were able to sink into the sand until it got up to their thighs.  Jake got so deep, we had to bring in Danny to help get him out, and it still took a while.  Playing with sinking sand leads to playing with sand in general, and let's just say, they got a little crazy.





For dinner that night, we had a most delicious broccoli salad--seriously, delish.  I'd never had it before, and it was delightful.  I didn't know I liked dried cranberries until then--in fact, I don't know that I'd ever tried them until then.  We also had Chuck Wagon Dinner, which makes us sound like cowboys, but was actually quite fantastic.  A disclaimer  though--food always tastes at least 37481054280 times better on the river.  EVERYTHING is good on the river.  Case in point:  I ate a pickle twice, put mayo on my sandwiches, and even ate a mushroom.  Clearly, the river makes you do crazy things.

After dinner was cleared up, we were all just sitting around chatting.  All of a sudden, and I mean all of a sudden, the wind picked up.  It REALLY picked up...fast.  The sand was blowing and it we couldn't see anything, and all of a sudden Tom goes, "Mom and Dad's tent!"  I looked over and I saw it flying away.  It was literally doing somersaults across the camp off toward the bushes in the distance.  People started running and all of a sudden we saw our tent starting to get away, and then it was just chaos.  The sand just blew and blew and blew.  It would stop for a minute and then start back up again.  It must have gone on for over an hour...I know, I know, I often exaggerate, but this time I'm serious.  When we finally went to bed, we had to cover our faces, and even then we ended up with sand in every part of our bodies.  Bleh.  That was not a fun night.

You know what?  I always think these posts are going to be short.  I think it's impossible for me to write a short post.  How obnoxious.

YAY, SCIENCE!

2 comments:

Matt & Mykel said...

Yay Science! Yay for the roaring 20's! Yay for river baths! Yay for broccoli salad! Nay for Sandstorms!

Anne said...

there is a you're/your error in this post...thought you would like to know. have fun finding it!

actually it could have been in the last one because i just read that one too. who knows. KISSES! also i love yay science.