S-U-P-E-R, Super Super that's what we are

Hey everybody,

I'm writing to you from the Super 8 Motel in Sedona AZ, a small town about 2 hours south of the Grand Canyon National Park.

We've been incredibly busy lately so we've fallen a bit behind on the posts but I'm going to try and get us all caught up with this one.

We spent our evening in Santa Fe by going to a local bar and having a couple of drinks. This was fun and all was good, and nothing unfortunate happened aside from the director spilling three quarters of one of his beers across half the bar. Fortunately, the barkeep was a very nice guy and offered to replace the beer... this action, probably we thought out, earned him a healthy tip.

Afterward Fletcher, our DD, picked us up and we went back to the hotel craving pizza... we were astounded to learn however that by 11:45 pm every pizza place in Santa Fe was closed... and more so every kind of food one could have delivered was likewise closed. This was a very startling turn of events and so we went to be unsatiated of our craving.

The next morning did not beggin in the best way. Fletcher has been having some digestive problems for the last two days and has been restrained to the washroom on a nearly hourly basis, and recely Alex H, also succumned to a simmilar illness. They are currently recovering in bed behind me (there is nothing better than sleep for healling) and we hope they get better soon. This did however make traveling more diffcult for us.

WE hit up the town of Santa Fe and aw some of the sites before moving on to Albuquerque. We had met some very nice people at the bar the previous night who told us we needed to see the so called "miracle" staircase at the Lorretto Chaple, and so we set out the next day to see it.

We unfourtubatly ended up at the wrong church, the Cathdral of St. Francis to be percise. It was not taken amiss however, as the cathedral was quite beautiful and there are many pictures to be uploaded of it. We asked the lady at the gift shop where we could find the Lorretto Chapple and she gave us directions right away. It seemed from her manner that many people made the mistake of coming to this cathedral instead; a susspicion which was quickly proved correct as another woman came up and asked her the same qustion as i was leaving.

We found the Chapple quite easily with her instructions and went inside to see the staircase. The mircle is in it's very existance. The staircase is made out of nothign but wood and no nails were used in its construction. Though a railing and brace have now been added as safety masures, in its original form it looked much like it was poured into place. Modern engineers marvel to this day that the stair is capable of standing at all.

We originally planed to take a scenic route known as the turquise trail from Santa Fe to Albuquerque, however, due to these constraints one car went straight to Albuquerque via the much fater direct route. Alex H and I went the long way but had the missfortune of having a rainstorm hit the path at the same time making photography difficult and limitng our view. We still managed to get a few good pictures (which are, of course, currently being uploaded)

We stayed at the Hyatt Place in Albuquerque and had an amazing room. First of all I would like to thank the staff of the hotel who were extremly nice and knowledgeable and even helped us find a steak house to have dinner at. The room was quite large, it had two double beds, as per our request, btu also included a small living room area with a pullout couch. The entire hotel was very classy and we thoroughly recomend it.

Though Fletcher had recovered some by this morning, Alex was worse for wear, so when we left the hotel to see the Grand Canyon this morning we were less excited than the event warranted.

Along the route we took a few pit stops to assuage the grumbling stomachs of our compatriots as well as some touristic detours. One of these is the Meteor Crater. This is the largest preserved meteor crater on Earth at 700 feet deep and 4000 feet across.

The site was something Alexandros had wnated to see since childhood and so he was very happy when we were able to take his picture next to the monumental crater. It wa put forth that for our next trip we should go to the moon so as to se a bigger crater.

Another touristic detour was a brief (very brief) stint on the famous route 66. We only pulled of to get some food and gas but still we cna now say that the cornerstone of US roadtrips was included in our travel plans.

As I mentioned we left the hotel rather less enthused that was appropiate for the nights goal, but by the time we got the the Grand Canyon we were all excited to see the sights; and none were dissapointed. The Canyon itself is beautiful and magnificent, the Colorado winding its way at the base as if to lay clame to its creation. We got to climb a watchtower at the southern rim of the canyon and see a grand view from the top floors. The piece de resistance of the whole night was of course the sunset. Having arived fairly late, we were just in time to see the sun set behind the canyon in a magnificent dysplay of colour. We took alot of pictures of it as well as a video which we will speed up and post shortly.

After sunset we retired to our hotel, the Super 8 I mentioned before, and turned in. The lads are all aslep behind me and i am about to join them.

Stay tuned for more exciting adventures and touristic atractions. The pictures of the last few days will be up soon as will the videos.

Tomorow we hit Vegas... and boy we plan to do so in style ;)