May 30 - United States: Grand Canyon North Rim, Arizona

Today was a day of rest and relaxation for us.  We slept in, which is a relative term when you're camping.  "Sleeping in" really means getting up at 7:00 when the sun reaches higher in the sky and the rest of the campground gets up.  We didn't mind though, because it gave us an early start on our relaxation.

Jon made pancakes and then we completely re-arranged the trunk to take advantage of some additional space.  That was pretty exciting for us, actually, because we're now using space more efficiently.  This may not sound like a big deal, but in a two-door BMW it's a huge thing.

We spent the next few hours doing laundry, which was an interesting task because only two of the six washers were working.  But since we got an early start, we got our laundry out before the rush of campers came in.

Then we sat around and read, and then we headed to the historical North Rim Lodge to check out the view and work on journals.

North Rim Lodge

The Grand Canyon Lodge on the North Rim was originally built in 1928, burned down in 1932, and then re-built in 1937.  It was designed so that visitors couldn't see the canyon until after they walked through the entrance of the lodge.  This is exactly what happened when we got there.  Because we're on the North Rim which is a higher, cooler altitude, the pine trees block out the view along most of the rim.  So you really can't see the Canyon until you walk through the Lodge into window-filled "The Sun Room".  And when you do, it's a beautiful view.

The Sun Room in The Lodge

The View From The Sun Room

We'd brought the laptop with us, with the intention of sitting in the lodge and writing up journals while enjoying the view.  Unfortunately, the lodge had the old two-pronged outlets, and the laptop is three-pronged.  So we couldn't plug it in.  I fired up the laptop anyway, intended to work on the battery for a while.  But after 15 minutes, the battery conked out.  I think it's just tired of traveling.

Jon had gone to the post office to mail a few packages and did some wandering while he was gone.  He found the North Rim Saloon, just next to the Lodge.  There he saw that - not only did they have beer - but they also had three-pronged outlets.  So we picked up the laptop and headed to the Saloon.  And stayed there for the next four hours.  I did my journal typing while Jon read USA Today, and both of us sipping on Sierra Nevadas.  All in all, a nice and comfortable way to spend the afternoon.  The music was good and the beers were cold.  The walls were covered in old black-and-white pictures of Teddy Roosevelt and his days in the Grand Canyon.

At 6:30, we drove back to the campsite to shower before they closed at 7:00.    Then we had soup for dinner and packed up as much stuff as we could for our departure tomorrow.