Everglades: Geriatrics

We really wanted to get a fan boat tour of the famous Florida swamplands.  Sadly, most of them require at least a day in advance to make a reservation, and we didn't even think to do a tour until that day.  Instead, we took an Everglades National Park tour of the 10,000 Islands.  There were no gators to be seen, but there were plenty of geriatrics.  In fact, we were the only people there under the age of 60 other than the tour guides.  I quipped to Ayk, “If you added the age of all the people on this boat, it’d be greater than 10,000.”

I have no problems with geriatrics, but there are some disadvantages to senior-friendly tourist attractions.  See, I imagined a boat tour of the Everglades with the wind whipping my hair while some Who song blares in the background.  Hardly our experience.  This boat tour was as slow as their elderly patrons. 

So slow in fact, I literally had to bite my lip during this following incident.  When a soda can fell from a retiree’s lunch bag to the ground and rolled under their feet, it took an excruciating minute for them to retrieve it after I told them it fell.  A minute doesn’t sound like a long time, but I timed myself and it took less than 5 seconds.  Take that, Gramps!

We did see the nose of a manatee.  It's just as exciting as it sounds.

SHARK!!

No, just dolphins.  And believe it or not, they're not much nicer than sharks.

Aw, but they're so cute!

Mine was supposed to be a turtle.  Ayk's is a manatee.

The Grand Canyon: 2

These are the non-canyon pictures from the Grand Canyon.

Pie for breakfast, why not?

Our actual meals.

We got the coconut cream pie.

Since we went on Super Bowl Sunday, I'm convinced that seeing these ravens was a good omen for the Steelers' loss to the Packers.  Revenge, bitches!

Pound it.

 Elk chilling along the drive to different overlooks.

A cabin converted to a gift store.

Drive to New Mexico

This blurry picture is a tractor trailer burning on the highway outside of Albuquerque.  The fire was so intense we could feel the heat radiating almost 20 yards away.

The Grand Canyon: 1

Unlike the Great Salt Lake, the Grand Canyon actually deserves the honorific "Grand" in its name.  It is easily one of the world's most iconic natural wonders, attracting visitors from all around the globe.  So many so that Americans were greatly outnumbered by foreign tourists at the popular overlooks.  It's no wonder there were dozens of visitors, even in the winter.  I'm trying to find words, but even my verbose self has a hard time describing its awe-inspiring beauty.  It's best to leave it to pictures.

It was the second time either one of us had visited the Grand Canyon, but Ayk was too young to remember his first trip.  On my first trip there, my family and I traveled to the bottom of the deep chasm and back again on mules.  If it weren't winter and we had more time (our two biggest recurring issues this trip), we would have loved to hike down at least part of the canyon.

These pictures are just a fraction of the ones we took.  The canyon is so massive that you have to drive a few miles to get a different view.  A lot of the pictures look like repeats even though they're from an overlook 5 minutes away.  I would apologize if some of the pictures look identical, but it's so beautiful it doesn't hurt to look twice.

I hate stereotyping, but if you're going to ask a fellow tourist to take a picture of you, ask an Asian.  They actually care what your picture looks like.

The guy we asked actually took a few pictures and was proud of this particular picture.  Understandably so.  We were glad we asked him.

Colorado River.  And my favorite picture from the Grand Canyon.

Erosion isn't always a bad thing.

Bridge over the Colorado

Ayk checking out the bridge.

 

Bright Angel, the trail we considered hiking until we realized it would have been icy and the same scenery the whole way down.