Our 2007 Vacation to the Grand Canyon
Some background
When I was growing up in Ohio, our family always took a summer vacation trip to somewhere... camping at Kettle Creek in Pennsylvania, spelunking Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, even exploring all of the Blue Holes in Florida! Sometimes it was just a day trip on the weekends to Lake Tomahawk, a private community where Mom and Dad had some property they planned to build on someday. It was a short ten minute jaunt from there to Beaver Creek State Park to swim, camp for the night or whatever. We were all younger then and but I still remember all the fun we had going and doing and hiking and exploring and... Fun!
As my brothers and I grew older and began our own lives, we spent less and less time together, moved away from home and eventually into our own homes. Now the few days we get to spend together every couple of years doesn't seem like enough, but it's always as if we've never been apart. We can still look back and say, "Do you remember when... ?" Eventually though, we want to go somewhere else on vacation - somewhere other than where we grew up - make some new memories. This is difficult to do when you're talking about four different families, no longer just one.
Enter the idea of timeshares. At first I thought Mom was losing her mind, buying one timeshare after another, until we began to use them more and more. She can trade a slot here in Florida for one in Mexico or Europe or whatever. Her and my daughter, Courtney, went to Germany. Next it was Amsterdam. My brother Matt and his wife Michelle went with them to Cancun Mexico. Ann and I begged off a number of times until we finally started driving up to Daytona to meet Mom and Dad for the weekend or drop Nick off to stay with them at the Leaky Tiki near us and the attractions here in Orlando.
When we were finally able to spend Biketoberfest 2007 at the timeshare in Daytona Beach, we were sold. We rode up, parked the bikes, and wandered around enjoying the lunacy. Come nightfall, we watched from the balcony as one idiot after another sat at the red light, revving his engine until it blew! Hilarious. But once is enough I'm thinking. Writing this I begin to think perhaps part of Mom's motivation is to get us together at new and different destinations...
Our adventure begins...
I always wanted to see the Grand Canyon, but my senior year of college I wasn't able to go with the rest of the family because it was finals week. Had the trip been scheduled a week later, I could have gone, and for me it was always a sore subject. Well, maybe I bitched and moaned about it one time too many, Mom said she arranged for two weeks at the Grand Canyon - one in Flagstaff and one in Sedona - now it's time to put my money where my mouth is, literally.
I start doing some research and looking at what's there. The plan is for us to spend one of the weeks at the one timeshare and my brother Chris and his family to spend the other week at the other timeshare, with Matt and Michelle showing up with enough overlap for all of us to be there at one time and spend some time together. Dad just had some work done on his knees, or maybe he is needing it done, can't remember. So unfortunately he isn't able to join us. Courtney is taking summer courses for college and can't join us either.
Of course, the first thing I look for is a Grand Canyon Railway and sure enough there is one! Okay, maybe not the first thing, but we are starting to get excited about the whole idea and it just takes off from there. Next thing you know, everyone is online looking up places to go and things to do, like Lowell Observatory, the Riordan (pronounced rear-dun) Mansion, Meteor Crater and last but not least, the Grand Canyon!
Ann gets online and looks up flight prices and we're soon booked.