10 Days in the Southwest

At the Grand Canyon

Traveling in the time of Covid -- it wasn't what I expected two months ago when I booked a trip to Albuquerque, the Grand Canyon and Los Angeles. Cases were down, down, down, and restrictions where being lifted. But all of a sudden the Delta variant ramped up, and I was second-guessing everything.

But still we went. Paul and I are fully vaccinated, we all had the coronavirus last November and we packed at least twice as many masks as we needed. Even better, we were outside for the vast majority of the trip.

It really felt like we took three very distinct vacations in our 10 days out of town. Each leg of the trip was so very different than the others -- the desert, one of the world's great wonders and a center of abject commercialism. Plus we drove some 1,300 miles.

In addition to the sights and sites, we all visited new states: two for Paul and I (New Mexico and California) and five for the kids (those two, plus Arizona, Nevada and Colorado -- the latter thanks to a layover). I'm now at 47 states, Paul's at 45, Edith's at 32 and Atticus has visited 30.

I'll be posting several blog posts about the different things we saw and did, interspersed with new posts about what's going on with us here in Columbus. (School starts this week! Crap Swap is next week!) Enjoy.

A few "preview" pictures -- you'll likely see them all on
future blog posts, and I'll explain them there!