Arizona The Beautiful

Our eleven year old grandaughter Mady (Madyson) visits us twice a year. Mady lives in Texas and visits us during summer and winter break. She is the most delightful child you can imagine and is still young enough to have a good time being with us old fogies. We do our best to keep her busy and entertained. Its been especially easy this summer because her dad is also here.

This past weekend the four of us took a trip to the Grand Canyon. Its about a four hour drive from Surprise. Almost immediately after we arrived at the Canyon it began to pour. Did this deter us? Absolutely not. The Grand Canyon is the Grand Canyon, rain or shine!

We stayed in Williams which is about an hour south of the Canyon. Williams is also a very unique little town. Old route 66 runs through Williams and it is the starting point of the Grand Canyon Railroad. The Grand Canyon Railroad is historic and runs from Williams to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.

The Grand Canyon Hotel in Williams has an annual event that children love. It's the Polar Express. It's a re-enactment of the movie, Polar Express, with Tom Hanks. Behind the hotel is a train station where you board the train which takes you to the North Pole. A couple of winters ago we took Mady on the Polar Express. We waited at the station in a wet snow. Once we boarded the train one of Santa's helpers passed out some song books and entertained us with music and song. About twenty minutes later we arrived at the North Pole and passed Santa and one of his helpers who waved to us as we passed. Afew moments later the train reversed direction and who should appear on the train but Santa himself!

He spoke to each of the children and gave them a bell as was done in the movie. Of course Mady still has that bell and I suspect she'll still have it when she's grown up.

The following day we went to a Wild Animal Park called Bearizona. This was truly one of the highlights of our trip. Bearizona is a drive-thru animal park. As you drive through you will encounter bears, big horn sheep, buffalos, white buffalos, lynx, Alaskan wolves and wild mules. You then arrive at a walk-thru area of the park where you see several more animals.

We then returned to the Canyon and the weather was beautiful. We of course looked at breathtaking views and put our cameras to good use.

You can spend many years in Arizona and still not see all there is to see.

What a beautiful state!