Nov 6,7 - 1995
Dear Ben & Jan,

Dad & Mom drove to Grand Canyon, Arizona on Monday Nov 6, 1995. We departed Los Angeles early at 7 am with aims to arrive GC before evening. We really managed that! , arriving at Best Western Squire Inn, Tusayan at about 4 pm. The Mountain time is 1 hour ahead Pacific time, so we had to wind the watch 1 hour ahead.

Along the way, we stopped at many places to fill up the gas and go to restrooms. We droved along Fwy 10 east - San Bernadino Fwy from your uncle's house in Alhambra. The Fwy was not so crowded since it was early Monday morning and most people entered L.A. to work, while we reversed the route to go out of town.



The Fwy was very wide, about 5 driving lanes each side. Dad drove all the way to Needles because Mom was not used to driving in the U.S. much! We took Fwy 15 north to Barstow and then took Twy 40 east to Kingman, Arizona.

Almost areas we passed were deserts but the mountain was very nice, it was purple, pink and blue. The weather was not very hot at all. It was very long driive but we don't feel much tired because the Interstate highway was in very good condition. Instead, we felt rather sleepy since there was not much traffic and we must keep consistent in driving speed, at 65 mph (but we drove 70-75 and stuck together with flock of cars).

After departing Kingman, Arizona at about 1.30 pm Mom passed the driving to Dad once again because Mom felt very sleepy and actually fell asleep while we were arriving Williams. When Mom woke up, we found out the scenery changed from desert view to pine trees, a lot of evergreen pine trees because it was conserved forest, very nice indeed.

The weather became cooler and we had to turn on the heating to keep warm. We didn't stop at Williams, but took the state hwy 64, 180 direct to GC. We checked in at the hotel, we got the room which was quite big, with very big 2 beds. Mom thought if Ben and Jan came, we'll stay together comfortably in this room.

We put things away quickly and rushed out to see sunset at GC because it was almost 5 pm now and we saw little light on the sky. At no knowledge about viewing GC we drove into the national park and paid entrance fee, $10 for 7 days visit.

We passed through the nice pine tree forest and stopped at the first point we hit, we saw some other visitors watching the sunset, and we then saw GC, the big natural wonder of the world! It was hugh, amazing and very impressive. I never thought there'll be any greater natural wonder like GC.



The weather was very cold, temperature dropped sharply to single digit and we shivered in the cool breeze. You know that we are just a very tiny thing comparing to this nature created GC.

After the sunset, we drove to visitor center to get some travel info. and found out that we lost 1 hour already. We watch the GC slide show at Amphitheatre, saw some exhibition and we left GC to have our dinner at Mcdonald's before getting back to the hotel. That's the end of our first day.

Waking up at 8 am, we found ice glaze all over places!.., on the lawn, on the pine trees and on our car. The temperature was exceptionally cold, we must wear our wool jumper to keep body warm. Dad must wipe away the ice glaze from all car windows with lukewarm water so that we'd able to drive!

We had full breakfast at the hotel and then got info to drive to the East Rim to see nice view of GC in the morning. We stopped at many points and took photos of GC in purple, pink and blue shades of colour. We couldn't explain how great feeling we experienced from viewing GC. It was not like when we saw the postcard, picture or video at all. We must see it for ourselves and we could feel how the panoramic view impressed us.

(น่าจะยังไม่จบแต่เขียนทิ้งค้างไว้แค่นี้เอง คงคิดว่ายังไงลูกก็คงขี้เกียจอ่าน!...)