We got up at 8am and started the day slowly. The internet connection at the hotel has been a big disappointment. Very slow and very unreliable. It went down last night and I used a looong time to upload yesterday’s blog entry in the morning.

We knew we only had a 3-4 hours drive to do today. Everyone took it easy. At about 9:35 we were all very hungry and headed down for breakfast. Breakfast closed at 09:30. Bummer! We had some bread lying around from yesterdays lunch and had that instead. Everyone was a bit grumpy to have missed out on a pretty good prepaid hotel breakfast.

We got going at about, you guessed it, 11am.

We have been very relaxed about schooling so far and it was time to get going seriously. The kids were not very motivated, they have been getting used to this semi-vacation. It took some explanation to get them to realize that they will actually need to work hard at times during this voyage. After a while they all had a good session with the iPads in the back seat.

We first drove for a long time on the vast high altitude plain that spans several states and held an altitude of more or less 6500 feet (2000 meters). As we came off and headed downwards the landscape started to change. So did the vegetation.

We went from mountain climate with around 60 F (16 C) to over 100 F (38 C) in a couple of hours.

About half way we stopped to fill gas at a gas station in the middle of nowhere.

The pumps were marked “Pay before you fill.” We had pre-payed gas on the car, so I didn’t want to fill up too much. Knowing that we had about 300 km more to go I calculated that with a margin we needed around 40 liters.

I entered the gas station and immediately sensed that I was a cultural intruder. I went into social chameleon mode and rolled out all I had of antennas. There were 2 people in front of me and I tried to get a sense of how they spoke with the lady behind the cash register. I prepared my canned sentence well in advance so I could concentrate on delivering it in the casual way that seemed to be needed here. The politeness factor was obviously very low and people did not waste time uttering words that were not necessary. I still settled on adding a “please” out of pure caution.

Once it was my turn I clearly and casually played my cards by saying “I need 10 gallons of regular on pump number 6, please.” Short, to the point, polite, well delivered. Should be a winner. Now she will take my money and I can get out of here quickly without any embarrassment. Nope.

She gave me a stare like she had just been addressed by an orange elephant speaking fluent Swahili. After a too long pause she spat out “10 gallons?!?!?!!” with a very hard stress on “gallons.” My brain went into overclock mode. What could have been wrong? Had I done a wrong calculation and asked for 400 liters in stead of 40 liters? No, nonsense, a gallon is just under 4 liters, can’t be simpler than that. Wasn’t she used to people ordering so small quantities? Strange. I quickly regained my balance and told her with a clear self-confident voice: “Yes, 10 gallons, please”. She sighed a long sigh that was very painful for both of us.

When she realized I was serious she entered a state of confusion. Her turn to loose balance. She hesitated for a while and asked into the air “How much is it now?” She walked over to the far end of the counter and leaned out so as to almost fall over as she looked out the window at the sign by the pump. She came back and mumbled “2.89”. Another sigh. Then: “10 gallons at 2.89. Holy smoke!” More confusion. Then she turned around, searched a bit, and found a calculator.

I still hadn’t figured out what was going on.

After typing in she said very slowly, as if she had trouble reading the display: “Twenty…eight, eighty … nine [sic!]. 29 dollars, is that OK?” I confirmed and she asked me if I wanted it on pump number 1. The woman who routinely enters pump numbers all day had forgotten which pump number I had said!

I told her number 6 and she took my money. It was on my way out to the pump that it all started to make sense to me. People here order in dollars, not in quantity. I had completely ruined her routine and broken a cultural code so ingrained here that no-one probably ever thought about it. On top of that, the lady was evidently not first in her class in multiplication.

I have done something similar in France. I once ordered 300 grams of ham at a butcher shop. If you do that in Norway (if you can still find a butcher that sells over a counter) they will cut you slices that total 300 grams +/- 0.5% In France I got a blank stare and a very confused guy who cut me slices weighing about 380 grams of ham. In France you specify how many slices you want and how thick they should be. Thickness is specified inaccurately (as in “thick” or “thin,” millimeters will definitely not cut it) and they might cut you a test slice and ask if it is OK. It is all part of a cultural ritual that separates those on the inside from those on the outside.

Sorry, I got carried away there again.

Once we arrived in Phoenix the kids were told they could have a recess in the pool before school continued. We hadn’t realized before today how tropical Phoenix actually is. The heat was impressive and the kids seemed to enjoy cooling off.

After 45 minutes no mercy was shown as school day continued.

Around 7pm we started walking to find a restaurant. The GPS on the iPhone brought us to a vegan restaurant called Green Restaurant. At first I did not feel like eating there as the place looked a bit worn and there were few people. Hélène frowned heavily and called me prejudiced. The place turned out to be fantastic. The kids had pasta and Hélène and I had curries with soy meat that were worthy of a gourmet restaurant. They also had the best selection of cool sodas I have ever seen. Adrian had a blue bubble gum soda, Viktor had a soda with cream taste (it tasted like cream and cotton candy) and I had a grape/black currant soda. There were lots and lots of others. If you are ever in the area, go check  it out.

Everyone is sleeping around me now. I have become a compulsory blogaholic and insisted on posting before going to bed. Thanks to all of you who have commented on our previous posts. It keeps us motivated, so keep that feedback coming.

In about 4 hours I need to get up. East coast and a bit colder climate is wating for us.

Eirik

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This morning there was no question of getting started at 11am. I had planned this day for a long time and we were all pretty excited that it had finally arrived.

In my research for the trip I had seen all the raving reviews on tripadvisor for the helicopter tours over Grand Canyon. After a brief discussion with the other member of the family finance committee the issue was settled.

We checked in at Maverick Helicopters a bit before 9:30. Everyone was weighed in (I sneak-peaked and saw that I have not gained weight so far during the trip!) so the pilot could plan our placement in the helicopter. They actually have a weight limit of 300 pounds (136.4 kilos). If you weigh more than that you have to pay double.

The atmosphere was a bit tense. The kids were giggliing a lot and Iseline was jumping up and down like only a tense 7 year old can do. Hélène was very focused on getting all the kids to go to the restroom since there were none in the helicopter. Myself, I walked restlessly back and forth until we were finally called forward.

The helicopter had space for the pilot and 7 passengers. We did the tour together with a very nice couple from Edmonton, Alberta in Canada (Heard about Wayne Gretzky?). I’m unable to remember their names but they promised to have a look at our blog. If you happen to drop by, do you mind if I put a picture of you on this blog?

When we took off the pilot did a few maneuvers that inspired confidence. I have never seen anyone control a helicopter with such precision (to be honest I have’t seen many people maneuver helicopters, but still). We hovered a feet or two over the ground as he slowly made us turn and drift over a lawn.

Iseline was a bit nervous and needed to hold my hand, but loosened up after a while.

Man, what an experience! The pilot went really low over the trees to make the biggest possible effect when we entered the canyon. It worked. The views we got were out-of-this-world and the weather was perfect. I had chosen the 10am tour on purpose after suggestions from people on the net. The sun was in a perfect position and we got very nice views without being blinded.

We circled the east part of the canyon and were up in the air for about 45 minutes. The images are burnt into my mind. What an impressive creation of nature the Grand Canyon is. The Colorado river has worked its way through layer after layer until it has reached 1.8 billion year old rocks at the very bottom. Meander after meander it has carved out a landscape worthy of Slartibartfast. At its widest the canyon is 30 kilometers across.

Adrian got to sit next to the pilot and also went through the procedure of turning the helicopter off after we landed.

Iseline was hungry after the helicopter ride. She had eaten almost nothing at breakfast, probably because of the suspense. We all had a quick lunch by the car before we headed over to the Grand Canyon national park again, this time by car. I had singled out a hike down the canyon that seemed to be doable for the kids. 3 miles (4.8 km) and plenty of nice views, including a walk on a ridge with practically a 360 degrees canyon view.

The kids were not really in walking mood and protests were heard from several of them. We told them that we as grownups had decided to do this and that it would be a great experience for them. I told them that I had read from many people on the net that you haven’t really experienced the canyon if you haven’t walked in it. The argument did not seem to win over many votes. The boys grudgingly accepted, but Iseline crossed her arms, put her nose upwards and went on strike,

I have always seen parenting as more of an art than a science. It’s a bit like being CEO of a company, just more difficult. You can read as many books as you want about it and you can make as many theories and plans in your head as you want. But in many situations you just have to make it up as you go. This was one of them. I took a split-second decision when we had parked at the visitor’s center and asked Iseline to come over to me behind one of the other cars. I bent down and told her that I understood that she was tired and that the hikes we had already done had been tough on her. However, this one was something mom and dad really wanted to do and she couldn’t go back to the hotel alone. I said that we could make a deal. If she did not tell anyone and kept it a secret, and she managed to walk all the way down the trail to the turning point, then I would carry her on my shoulders all the way back up again. She quickly agreed.

I didn’t want her to tease the boys on the way down and by making it a secret between the two of us it made it become something special.

We took the shuttle over to South Kaibab Trailhead and read all the warning signs. People die from dehydration quite frequently in the canyon. Most of them because they try to walk all the way down and up again in a single day. The altitude difference between the high plain and the Colorado river is a stunning 6000 feet (1800 metres). The trail I had chosen went down about 1150 feet (350 metres) in altitude, although I didn’t know it at the time.

The first part was very steep with hairpin turns. I was starting to get nervous about my deal with Iseline. This was way steeper than I had imagined.

All the oohs and ahhs on tripadvisor turned out to be legitimate and genuine. We got a very different impression of the canyon once we were inside it. There were breathtaking views from the helicopter, but down in the canyon we felt like we were part of it. About half way down we reached a point called the Ohh Ahh Point (no kidding) where we got the canyon on both the left and the right side for the first time. Very impressive. We then worked our way down to Cedar Ridge to get even more impressive views.

Just like Bryce Canyon it felt difficult to explain the experience. You feel smaller than an ant and filled with a sense of calm and peace.

I have always loved excellent views and searched for good lookout points wherever I am. It puts me in a meditative state to look out over a vast area. My own theory about this feeling is that it has been engraved in our genes through natural selection. When you have a good view you are probably at a local maxima in the landscape. It means you have the best overview over potential enemies, hunting targets or dangerous animals. If you are attacked, or want to attack, you have the advantage of gravity working in your direction. It’s easier to throw a rock in someone’s head if you are above them. So, it is in our best survival interests to seek good views. Millions of humans have probably died, and their genes with them, because it gave them a good feeling to wander randomly around the bottom of the valley or maybe because they got a bad headache once they had a good view.

There were chipmunks here also.

After a second lunch at Cedar Ridge next to centuries old trees

we began the long trek back up again. I didn’t fully understand what  I was getting in to back at that parking lot, but a deal is a deal. I put Iseline on my shoulders and slowly started making my way upwards, She was naturally thrilled and we got some smiles and comments from people coming in the other direction. It was a very good workout.

When we were almost at the top my back really started hurting and I told Iseline I needed a break. I put her down and her feet started spinning like the Road Runner. She ran off with a big smile on her face and I was quite relieved as she happily finished the rest of the hike on her own feet. We did the hike in 2 and 1/2 hours, plus the lunch break. The kids were quite happy we had done it, but were now ready to go back to the hotel.

Exhausted, and under severe pressure from the kids, we settled on driving to one lookout point we hadn’t covered yesterday before we went back.

For dinner I suggested Wendy’s. In my opinion the best of the fast food burger chains. Hélène gave in after a few tries (understandable resistance, as the only thing she can eat there is their chicken salad, minus croutons and cream dressing). The kids were not as difficult to convince.

Inspired by the weighing in at Maverick Helicopters I had a bacon deluxe 3/4 pound tripple burger. Yummy,

The sights in Utah and Arizona are over for now. Tomorrow we will spend some time on the road and then relax. It’s needed. Viktor asked me today if we would have days without a program during the voyage. He wanted time to just relax. The kids are a bit saturated and we will need to lower our ambitions in New York.

See you around.

Eirik

—–

Après une journée magnifique dans Bryce Canyon, une trempette dans le jacuzzi extérieur de l´hotel et un bon dîner, la nuit fut paisible. Départ de l’hôtel en douceur ce matin, à 11h nous étions sur la route, avec le Grand Canyon comme objectif final.

L’etat de l’Utah est truffé de parcs nationaux, de “monuments nationaux” et de réserves diverses. Les paysages sont tous plus fantastiques, on ne s’en lasse pas. La route vers le sud était encore assez spectaculaire, et les vues superbes. On a longé des falaises rouge vermillon, traversé des gorges, vu encore des quantités de formations bizarres. Au risque de vexer nos amis et parents du Brianconnais, je dirais que les “demoiselles coiffées” de Sachas n’ont plus qu’à aller se rhabiller!

On a aussi traversé un hameau portant le nom de Gap

Une fois arrivés à la frontière entre l’Utah et l’Arizona, on s’approche du lac Powel alimenté par la rivière Colorado, qui serpente sur le plateau et s’écoule vers le Grand Canyon. Le lac est artificiel, il existe depuis la construction du barrage de Glen Canyon en 1964. Le lac a mis 17 ans à se remplir complétement. Le barrage en lui même est des plus impressionants.

Vue à gauche du pont où passe la route:

Vue à droite du pont où passe la route:

Juste en aval du barrage, la rivière Colorado fait un virage en épingle à cheveux. L’endroit est appelé le Fer à Cheval et on peut l’admirer du haut de la falaise, à quelques minutes de marche de la route. Ca fait du bien de bouger et faire un peu de gymnastique après des heures de route.

Un petit coucou à Gabrielle. Ton nounours est devant la rivière Colorado.

Le canyon creusé par la rivière est déjà très profond à cet endroit, environ 300 m. Mais ce n’est qu’un petit avant goût de ce qui nous attend plus loin…



La route traverse ensuite la réserve des indiens Navajo. Iseline se demandait si les indiens vivaient encore dans des tipis et se promenaient à cheval. On a vite pu lui montrer qu’ils habitent dans des caravanes qui n’ont pas tout a fait le même charme… On voit sur le bord de la route d’innombrable stands de vente d’artisanat indien. La concurrence est dure.

Arrivés à l’entrée est du parc, on peut admirer la vue sur une partie du Grand Canyon depuis Desert View.

Comme pour Bryce Canyon, on se déplace sur le plateau, recouvert de forêt de pins, et on s’approche du bord en de nombreux endroits qui offrent une vue à couper le souffle. Le soleil est bas, la lumière rasante, on profite encore du coucher de soleil et on devine la taille imposante de ce canyon.

On termine la route à la tombée de nuit, heure propice pour rencontrer des chevreuils.

Arrivés à Tusayan, on mange un dîner de cow-boy, occasion de goûter à des beignets de serpent à sonnette.

Verdict du jury: goût neutre, un peu comme du poulet, mais caoutchouteux. 

Une fois installés dans notre hôtel, hop, au lit. Une grande journée nous attend demain.

Hélène

WOW!

How does one start describing Bryce Canyon? Ebenezer Bryce, who gave the canyon its name and homesteaded here as late as 1874, said: “It’s a hell of a place to lose a cow!”

Last night Hélène had gone to bed while I finished yesterday’s blog entry and had asked me to set the alarm to 8am. I am terrible at multitasking and when I had finished I remembered vaguely that Hélène had said she had set the alarm to 8am.

We were woken up by Iseline who climbed into our bed at 8:30. We only had one thing to do today so we took our time and were at the park at 11am. It seems that 11am has become our standard starting time.

We let the kids vote if they wanted to do a 4.6 km (2.9 miles) hike or an 8.8 km (5.5 miles) hike. The first one won unanimously and we headed towards sunrise point.

On our way I read up on Bryce Canyon geology and explained how it all came to be to the kids.

200 million years ago a mountain range was formed when the Pacific plate collided with the North American plate. 65 million years ago it was mostly flattened and a large area of what is now the US was landlocked with an enormous lake forming on the plain that used to be mountains. This large lake had no outlet and became gradually more and more salty. Lime deposits from the rivers floating into it mixed with remains of organisms that lived in the lake to form sediments on the lake bottom. In the end it was so salty that only cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) could live there. At some point the lake disappeared, either through evaporation or by being emptied into the ocean by a gelogical event. It left behind layer upon layer of sediments from its bottom.

Then, about 16 million years ago, the land was lifted up by plate movements. The sediments from the lake were lifted from around sea level to over 2400 meters (8000 feet) altitude. Erosion did its work over the years creating valleys and canyons. The area that was to become Bryce Canyon was not eroded by running water, but by freezing water. Its location on a high altitude plain far away from an ocean climate gives it extreme temperature differences. There can be as much as 27 degrees celcius (80 F) difference between night and day. For 200 days of the year there is a freeze/thaw cycle between night and day. Water melts during the day working its way though cracks and pores only to freeze and expand again during the night.

Some of the sediments left after the lake are harder than others. When a hard layer is on top of a softer layer monoliths (called “hoodoos”) are created as the ice works its way down and leaves parts of the top layer intact.  Thousands of these hoodoos are what make up Bryce Canyon.

Bryce Canyon is never the same from one year to the next. In the spring time it is possible to hear that it is still forming from all the pebbles that fall down the sides of hoodoos.

Oops, sorry, got a bit carried away there.

Given the geology of the area you always start hiking from the plain at about 2400 meters altitude and work your way down to the canyon and then back up again. Our hike through the  Queens Garden and Navajo Loop parts of the park turned out to be a very good choice. We walked through an out-of-this-world maze of hoodoos and other bizarre formations.

It made us feel small and also privileged to be able to visit such a place. We could sense it in the children also. This was something very special, and they knew it. Even a hard-nosed atheist like myself turned religious for a few seconds.

Many thanks to our friend Paul. He returned from Bryce Canyon years ago and spoke very warmly of it. That’s why we chose it as a destination. He had given me the advice to not stop taking pictures, We took him seriously. I ended up at 277 photos for the day (many of those are panoramas to be stitched together) and Hélene at 105!

The trail was not only followed by humans. There were chipmunks all over the place. It took me about 20 photos until I shot this one.

At the last lookout point of the hike someone started speaking Norwegian to us. It turned out to be Roald Wold who was on motorcycle vacation with a US friend. It was good to have someone else to speak Norwegian to and the whole family jumped in on the chat. Roald (on the right here) seemed to be a very nice guy and promised to take a look at our blog.

UPDATE: Roald has found the blog and just now emailed me the photo he took of us at the same place. The internet is a cool thing! Here is the photo:

At one of the lookout points we found this cool sign.

After the hike we found a nice spot with a view and had lunch.

We then drove all the way to the other end of the national park, about 25km (15 miles) and stopped at many lookout points. It just went on and on. What a fantastic place. It’s also quite striking how the forest covered plain looks so normal and dull, only to suddenly be broken by cliffs and spectacular views. What mustn’t it have been like for the first hunting humans who stumbled onto this wonder by chance?

That, by the way, is my prize photo of the day. Bryce Amphitheater photographed from Bryce Point. Stitched together from 5 individual photos. It has been soooo difficult to select a few photos from the many good ones for this blog entry. I have to sneak in one more. This is part of the rim of the canyon seen from Bryce Point:

At one of the last lookout points Iseline was starting to have enough. When we got back into the car she said: “I want to go back to the hotel. Are we finished looking at the park with all the rocks now?” Everyone else laughed.

That reminds me of another good Iseline quote. When we entered the caves at Pinnacles National Monument she went in first and yelled “Mom, you are never going to get your bottom through here!”

On our way out of the park we spotted some deer. 14x optical zoom comes in handy from time to time.

We returned completely exhausted to the hotel at 6pm. The kids had been talking about the pool of the hotel all day and we gave in. Half an hour in the pool was actually a good way to relax.

Restaurant choice was easy. There are two here and one had a large sign on the outside saying “Dinner Cowboy Show.” We chose the other one. Tomorrow morning we will drive down to another natural wonder: The Grand Canyon.

Eirik

—–

The alarm clock went off at 06:30 this morning and everyone was a bit slow in getting into gear. By 8am we were all packed and took the shuttle to the airport.

We told the shuttle driver we were flying with SkyWest and he dumped us off at terminal 3 at the airport. At check-in they were wondering what we were doing there, since our plane was leaving from terminal 1! Thank you, driver. We walked over to terninal 1 and got some good exercise. Luckily we had lots of margin since we had decided to have breakfast at the airport.

Our plane was a CRJ900 from Bombardier. Here’s the mandatory photo, Marius.

Flying conditions were excellent and we had some great views of Salt Lake City on our way in. We killed a couple of hours at the airport by having lunch and also took a picture of Gabrielle’s teddy bear

and the kids posted postcards from San Francisco to their friends.

The next plane bringing us to St. George in Utah was a beautiful Embraer EMB 120ER Brasilia.

The boys were all excited to fly in such a small airplane with propellars. We sat just next to the motors and the noise was terrible. It felt like I had been to a rock concert when we arrived. Note to self: Bring earplugs for everyone on the next flight.

The airport in St. George is spectacular. The landscape around it is breathtaking with typical grand canyon like very steep hillsides and deep valleys. The airport itself is on a flat “island” from a long gone sea floor. with the city deep down in the valley below it.

Bagage claim was not vey large. This is all of it.

Once at the rental car counter there was no one there from Hertz. The friendly lady at the Enterprise counter told us that “she has just gone out for a while to prepare a car for someone. There is only one person working there. She will be back in 5 to 10 minutes.” 20 minutes later the woman arrived with a dry “So, what can I do for you?” Welcome to rural America.

When we at last got our car we started the hunt for gluten-free bread. I had already spent a couple of hours in vain last night around Millbrae. On the second try Hélène came out of a grocery store with a big smile on her face and 3 loaves of bread. Saved!

It was now 6pm. We had already spent 2 hours since landing and needed to get going. We had 2 1/2 hours driving to do before reaching our hotel. As always when you travel with children, if you run late you will run even later. The kids were now too hungry for us to make it to the hotel without eating. I looked at the map and we decided to take a small detour and go through Zion National Park. That way we could see parts of Zion, which I really wanted to do, and also go to one of the restaurants at the entrance to the park.

The views on our way to the park were very nice.

The sun was on its way down when we arrived, lighting up the mountain sides with an orange-red glow.



After a good meal we drove up to the entrance to pay the fee to get in. It was now pitch dark. So much for seeing parts of Zion. Great thinking, Eirik! But it was going to get worse.

It would have taken us only a few minutes to zip through the park and continue to our hotel from the other side. It was 8:01pm and the guy in the booth with the uniforn and the ranger hat abruptly informed us that the park closes at 8pm and that we could not drive through. Double bummer!

There was only one option. We turned around and drove almost all the way back to St. George. Nearly 5 hours after landing we were back at square one. Everyone was grumpy and the kids were constantly nagging each other in the back seat. Iseline became totally unbearable and ended up screaming “I don’t want to travel any more. I want to go home and be with my friend Johanna!”

We arrived at the hotel at around 10:30pm (Hélène can drive fast when she wants to), exhausted after a transportation day that lasted at bit longer than expected.

We are now on a high plain at 2450 meters (8000 feet) altitude. Tomorrow we will attack Bryce Canyon and do some more hiking. I’m really looking forward to that.

Eirik

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