Finally pulled the pics off my camera from the recent Grand Canyon trip. It was a blast, but too short... Thursday night I flew out to visit my friend C in Goodyear, AZ. We just grabbed some food on the way back from the airport and went back and crashed. Friday, C worked and I relaxed around his folks place. Very nice house. Big and has a very nice back yard and view. After work we went out for dinner and then a movie. Clerks 2 was playing at the right time, so we went to that. It almost looked like it was going to be a private showing: It was an ok movie and entertaining while I was there, but it wouldn't bear repeat viewing. Saturday I had C drop me at the airport and I met up with one of my sisters that was heading up from Tucson. It was a 3 or so hour trip up to Williams, which wasn't too bad. We all amused ourselves with a silly car game (a-z find words that start with each letter in turn). The hotel was nice and the buffet place we ate (it was included with the package) was pretty good as well. The hotel had wireless, but it was unusable. It kept dropping out all the time while trying to use it, so I ended up using my phone connection when I needed to check emails. The hotel had a nice outside area in back that we took over. It was great weather... Sunday was the train trip up to the canyon. It started out with a gunfight: We had some music up (and back) on the train (sorry for it being blurry, the train was moving around): The train going around a curve: My brother and one of my sisters: The train depot at the canyon: The tour bus we got seated 16, and there were 16 of us (although my nephew was in his wheelchair, so we had 1 empty seat). Here's the guide walking up from the back of the bus: The bus took us to about half a dozen lookout places (as well as lunch). The mules that take people down into the canyon: First look at the canyon. You should probibly just click on the picture and go to the full gallery. There are a ton of pictures, and I don't want to link to them all here (but I will do a few more of the notable ones). You should go look now. I'll wait... go ahead... Some of the rails were comforting: Some clouds: The orphan mine. It was a uranium mine on the canyon rim. Closed now, but it could be reopend someday. Here you can see part of the bright angel trail going down in the canyon from the main bunch of buildings (lodge, etc): The train getting ready to head back to Williams. On the way up it was a deisel engine, but on the way back we had a steam train: The Grand View car on the way back (they gave us cheese and crackers and champane and such on the way back): The engine on the way back going around a curve: The back of the hotel (facing the train depot): Monday was travel back to the airport and back home.