Monday, October 11, 2010

NOTE: We will be traveling to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon tomorrow. We are staying at a Canyon Lodge for one night, and the lodge does not have internet access. Therefore, I will not be posting a blog entry on Tuesday, October 12. However, I will be back on line on Wednesday and I promise to share pictures with you then!


Monday, October 11, 2010

Tonight's picture was taken in October of 2008. Based on the activity, I can tell it was a Friday in the PICU, when the Georgetown University chemistry club would come and do an experiment with the kids. That particular day, the Club decided to make touchable bubbles. It involved dry ice, which was why all the kids were wearing socks to protect their hands. Mattie was playing with one of these bubbles, which to me looked like a snowball, however, it was MUCH lighter than a snowball. Mattie loved science and he loved learning through hands on experiments. This picture was taken before Mattie's first limb salvaging surgery, however, he was receiving chemotherapy during that admission. The beauty of Mattie was even chemotherapy couldn't hold him down. There were days he did not feel good from the treatments and most certainly there were many days in which emotionally he was clearly altered from these drugs. But for the most part, even on tough days, Mattie wanted to engage in play and wanted others to join him in the fun.


Quote of the day: Some die without having really lived, while others continue to live, in spite of the fact that they have died. ~ unknown

We began the day by packing up the car. While doing this, Peter noticed a hummingbird sitting, of ALL things, on my parent's tree. I too went over to look, and sure enough, this tiny cutie happens to love this tree. He would buzz around from flower to flower, but would always come back to this tree to sit still. It was an amazing sight to observe since hummingbirds rarely stop moving. Peter captured this lovely sight, and I wanted to share it with you.

We began our driving adventure at 9:45am, and we did not end up at our destination, Williams, Arizona, until 5:15pm. It was a long day of car traveling for us, and fortunately we had Peter driving, because he is very good at finding the most direct routes that take the shortest amount of time to get from one place to another.

While driving, I attempted to take pictures from the backseat. We were all fascinated by the desert like terrain, and it is amazing how you can go from a more lush area in Southern California, to this landscape in a matter of an hour or so.

This picture was taken on our way to Williams, Arizona. We were still in California, but it was a very different part of California than I am used to seeing. The mountains were barren, the soil was sandy, and not to mention that there were scrub bushes in the sand that reminded me of tumble weeds in old Western films.

 

Trains were in abundance on our journey. Trains that seemed to go on for miles and miles carrying all sorts of freight.

The ironic part of this car trip was that on one side of the road the mountains could look like the picture above, while the mountains on the other side of the road could look like this. I never experienced two such different sights at the same time.

One of the places we stopped today was in Needles, Californiia. Needles sits on the border of California and Arizona. Peter took a picture of this restaurant most likely because the wagon on the roof caught his attention, the yellow color stood out to him, and because the sign above the door reads, "Best Food and Service on Rte 66." I did not even see Peter take this picture because I was getting ice cream and started chatting with the lady inside the store. While in the store, I noticed that the time on my phone went from pacific daylight time to mountain time. So I asked the store clerk if Needles, CA was on Mountain time. She began to tell me some sort of convoluted story about daylight savings time, and she lost me. But bottom line is she thought her town was on Pacific time. Well I was thoroughly confused, because my phone wouldn't have changed over if we indeed weren't changing time zones. So when I got back into the car, I did a google search of Needles, CA to find out what time zone it  follows. You can see what kinds of things bother me while we are driving! Anycase, what I found out was.........
Most of Arizona does not observe daylight saving time, and during summer months, Needles, is on the same time as Pacific Daylight Time, though it is still called Mountain Standard Time in Arizona. Is this confusing enough for you? I can see why the store clerk had a hard time explaining this!

After traversing through Needles, CA., we entered the State of Arizona and I snapped a picture of the Welcome to Arizona, the Grand Canyon State, sign. Literally while snapping this picture, Peter shouted out that a road runner just ran across the road. I unfortunately did not see it, but all I could think of was that I was in a Looney Tunes cartoon, and I expected to see Wile E. Coyote next. Naturally seeing the roadrunner led to the conversation of state birds. So I googled birds and learned that the roadrunner is New Mexico's state bird while the Cactus Wren in the
Arizona's state bird. The Cactus Wren is seven to eight inches long and likes to build nests in the protection of thorny desert plants like the arms of the giant saguaro cactus. It builds many nests but lives in only one. The rest are decoys. The beauty of my blackberry is it helps to answer questions that pop into my mind while driving. Unfortunately you are the recipients to this stream of consciousness!

As we got closer to Williams, Arizona, we began climbing in elevation and the roads were winding. The rock formations were fascinating, as you can see in this picture.

The rock formations were quite memorable. The terrain changed rather suddenly and it began to look more forest like rather than desert like.

The town of Williams, Arizona is about 6500 feet above sea level. Along the road we actually saw cows and sheep. Which was a first, since the previous desert terrain we had been driving through was barren and couldn't support such animal life.

As we entered the town of Williams, this metal arch caught my attention. Williams is a city in Coconino County, Arizona, United States west of Flagstaff. Its population according to the 2006 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the city at  3,094. It lies on the route of Historic Route 66, Interstate 40, and the Southwest Chief Amtrak train route. It is also the southern terminus of the Grand Canyon Railway, which takes visitors to Grand Canyon Village. Because of its location near the South Rim of Grand Canyon National Park, Williams is a major tourist stop. Williams is named after William "Old Bill" Williams, a mountain man and trader who often trapped in the area.

When Grand Canyon sightseers and Interstate 40 motorists visit Williams they're about as close to Arizona history as they can get.  Williams, because of the variety of architecture, is like a time machine transporting visitors from the days of outlaws and steam trains to the years of Route 66, America's Mother Road. The town was named for Bill Williams who was a trapper, pathfinder and guide in the 1820's, 30's and 40's, and whose contemporaries were other famous mountain men. In June, 1882 the 250 residents of the brand new town where there was no electricity or indoor plumbing waited for construction of the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad west toward them from New Mexico through northern Arizona and on to California. The rails would connect Arizona's last frontier with national markets for beef and wool. A railroad through Williams in Grand Canyon country north of the desert not only would make it much easier to transport cattle and wool to market, but would bring manufactured goods from eastern industrial centers at unheard of speed with lower transportation costs.

We are staying at the Grand Canyon Railway Hotel.  When I first arrived at the hotel all I could hear were trains and train whistles. For just that particular moment in time, I started laughing because it reminded me of an episode from I Love Lucy. It is an episode where Lucy and friends land up at a hotel on their way to California, but what they do not realize is that the hotel is located right by the train tracks and every time the train goes by, it causes havoc on the hotel. Thankfully our hotel is NOT like this! If you want a laugh, click on this link (Thanks Karen for finding it!!!):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YMEBso9Di0&feature=related


Peter snapped this picture of my mom and I in the lobby of the hotel. Literally behind the hotel is a train depot. This train will be taking us on a two and a half hour trip to the Grand Canyon tomorrow. We will be staying at the rim of the Canyon one night and then returning to Williams by train on Wednesday afternoon. So due to the fact that I will be unable to get internet access in the Canyon on Tuesday, I will be unable to post a blog until Wednesday. So stay tuned as the adventure continues!