Today one of my dreams came true. As a small child, one of my fondest memories is of my father playing "The Grand Canyon Suite" on our very fancy record player. He would carefully take out the black vynal disk from a cover with a picture of the Canyon on it, place it on the turn-table and gently place the needle on the first track. We would lie on the carpet in front of the speakers and listen. He spoke with rapture about what to listen for - the beauty of the Canyon, the hush before the sunrise, the sound of mules braying on the trails descending into to its depths. He described the Canyon so well that as the music played I could see its vastness in my little mind, I could see the colours ever changing as the light and shadows played on its great creviced canvas, I could feel its majesty. Ever since my father introduced me to this beautiful music I have wanted to see this wonder of the world. Today I stood on the rim of the Grand Canyon and I was not disappointed.
Some things are so big, so beautiful, so awesome that they are beyond capturing. No matter how many photos I took or words I now try to pen, I cannot show to you how amazing it truly is. Dad did a pretty good job using the music to help me visualise it and I wish he too could have been as lucky as I to stand and gaze upon it.
It was a very long day beginning with our pickup from the hotel at 6:00am, a short side trip to view the Hoover Dam (an amazing wonder itself though be it man-made), and then the long drive through the Arizona desert landscape to finally reach the southern rim of the Canyon. We viewed a film about its history at an IMAX theatre before finally stepping onto its rim and beholding the wonder of it. Years of anticipation were suddenly over. I was here and I gasped as I saw it for the first time. Everybody does. Everybody will for as long as they continue to come.
We walked along a trail for about 5 kilometres taking in all we could. It was very slow going because we could not tear our eyes away from it. We could not stop stopping and looking and breathing it in and being struck by how the colours kept changing as the sun sank lower in the sky. It is beautiful beyond words and this was one of the most beautiful days of my life. We left the Canyon at sunset, driving under a clear sky with a crescent moon smiling down on us and arrived back at our hotel after midnight. The Grand Canyon - a grand ending to a grand holiday. (Here is where the cymbals crash to end the crescendo.)