Hockey Season is Here

Today is the last real day of our trip and it started for us in the Grand Canyon. We had a room for two nights - the first time the whole trip we stayed in one place for consecutive nights. By getting up early, we were up as the sun rose and the best part was we could sit in bed and watch it out or window (and given that it was still cold, though not as windy, that was a huge bonus). After getting ready and packing up, Jess and I went out to walk along the rim and take some pictures. Again, it was absolutely beautiful and while we're ready to get home, it was still sad to leave.

On the way out, we stopped at the entrance sign to take pictures since we missed the one coming in from the east. We also had to fill one of our tires since it was really low as it probably has a slow leak that we've been dealing with for a few days.

The next stop was lunch in Sedona. I know people have said to hike along the red rocks but after seeing the Grand Canyon and Vermillion Cliffs, it was still nice but not as awe-inspiring. We ate a nice lunch in Sedona (which was very busy) before moving on to our final National Park site.

Montezuma Castle National Monument is another ruins site but this was has a multi-story building that's still pretty intact. It was a brief stop - the trail is short and there's not much to see there - but they charge $10 a head to get in. I was surprised at how busy it was there (even for a Saturday) and it was a place like this that made me glad we have a Parks Pass that gets our whole group in without paying anything additional. Plus, I didn't lose our pass this time which will come in handy for Washington and Alaska next year...

The final destination on our trip is an Arizona Coyotes hockey game. It may only have been preseason but it was our first hockey game of the season and I'm pretty sure every trip we take has to have a sporting event in there somewhere. Luckily we could walk to the game from our hotel so it didn't take long for us to walk back after they lost (which angered me because I really wanted the Coyotes to win for, uh, monetary reasons, and they blew a 3-0 lead). And with that, we're ready for the Canes to let us down all winter long.

Tomorrow we're just heading to the airport in the morning to fly home so our trip will officially be over. I think everything went pretty well and everyone had a good time and we were able to see everything we had originally planned to see. The weather held up nicely and no one fell off a cliff. All in all, that's a successful journey.

As they say at the Coyotes games, "I think we can win the Cup this year!" Note: No one says this.