Q: What do...

this...

this...

this...

this...

and this...

have in common?

A: They are part of the "Happy-Birthday-Walker-&-Congrats-on-finishing-med-school-Emily-vacation-extravaganza"! We have been toying with the details of this vacation for probably 6 months now, working on seeing how many of these places we could squeeze in to our vacation financially, and we are now officially booked and ready to go (and unbelievably excited with the results)! I basically have become a Southwest rewards, Hilton Honors points, Living Social Escapes, and Groupon groupie, and it is sort of ridiculous how far we have stretched our vacation budget. Free flights and free and/or incredibly discounted hotel rooms have made this amazing trip a reality, and OH.MY.GOSH we are excited!! We plan to live it up before my intern year hits and I return to living at the hospital. Life as a fourth year is pretty sweet.

If any of you have restaurant, activity, or sight-seeing suggestions for Lake Tahoe, Napa Valley, Monterey Bay/Carmel/Big Sur, Yosemite, or San Francisco please send them our way via comments or e-mail (emilytfain@gmail.com)!

Thrown for a Luepp

It all started when a search of the internet came up empty for an address to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. Walker and I have relied on a GPS for our travels for several years now, and are accustomed to plugging in an address, hitting "Go", and listening to our British-accented guide Garmina (the name we have given the voice on the Garmin) lead us to our destination. There may not have been an address to the Grand Canyon South Rim entrance, but on the national park website I found the following:

South Rim Visitor Center:  36°03'32"N 112°06'33"W

I saved it in our GPS prior to our departure from Phoenix that fateful Saturday morning, and we were off! What could be more accurate than GPS coordinates? Oh my friends, this is where the story gets interesting...

After a lovely morning in Sedona, eating Mexican food, playing in the snow, and taking in the beautiful scenery, it was time to head to our final destination - the Grand Canyon.

Looking back on it, we missed about a million signs along the way. Road signs that said "Grand Canyon" pointing the opposite direction of our travels. No hint of anything grand or canyonesque anywhere in our view, even though the Garmin told us we were getting close.

Passing maybe 1 car every 15 minutes or so on the road to one of the world's most popular tourist destinations. A sign that said "You are now entering a Navajo Indian reservation". A sad football field made entirely of dirt. Dome-like communal-looking homes. I could go on...

But faith had been placed in a blond-ish navigator and a brand new GPS, and we didn't even hesitate. Claire even commented on how neat it was for this little community of people to live so close to and likely work in the Grand Canyon. It wasn't until we were supposed to turn on "Indian road 5952" (a gravel road that headed to even more desolate land) and zoomed out on the GPS that we realized the gravity of our situation. I had found confidence in seeing "Grand Canyon South Rim" written out on the map of the GPS, and knowing that we were headed right towards it. The low point for me was the moment I remembered that I had in fact typed in that name to save the coordinates of our destination, and it was not there b/c it was a part of Garmin's maps. Epic fail.

In sum, we were headed north from Sedona to the Grand Canyon (the "X"), and ended up in Leupp (the arrow), which we have decided is the most desolate and isolated location that any of us had ever experienced in our lives.

Thank goodness for easy-going travelers with a sense of humor. After a moment of hesitation, some re-working the GPS and confirming with iPhone maps, we decided there was no way we would miss out on the Grand Canyon b/c of our Leupp detour. Reid, our history-buff, immediately began educating us on this Navajo Indian population (of less than 1000, 98.1% Navajo Indian). I regret not taking more photographs of Leupp, but my embarrassment of the situation overwhelmed and inhibited me until we were several miles off of the reservation. Basically all you need to know is summed up in this photo from Google Images...

Leupp may not look too terribly far from the Grand Canyon on the map above, but what you can't see is that any direct route between the two locations would involve driving on unpaved "Indian Roads", which we just didn't think our rented HHR could handle. So this happened...

The original plan was to enter the Canyon at the South Rim (the "X"). Post-Leupp we switched to the East Rim (the star) in an effort to make it there with daylight to spare. Time required to drive from Leupp to the Grand Canyon East Rim? Approximately 3 hours. That's not including the 2 hour detour from Flagstaff. That's right. I have a very loyal, forgiving, and humor-loving husband and set of friends. 

We made it to the Grand Canyon with about an hour of sunlight left, and were able to watch a beautiful sunset, so we can't complain too much. 

We also each probably burned about 500 calories laughing about the situation. It certainly wasn't how we planned our adventure to turn out, but looking back on it, we wouldn't have it any other way. How many of the 50,000+ (I have no idea what the final number was) Auburn fans in Arizona for the game were lucky enough to cruise through Leupp, Arizona? I'd put my money on four.

I still don't know how it happened. My only guess is that when I chose which format to input coordinates on the GPS, I chose the wrong one. I gave up trying to figure it out. It was an all-star 5-hour detour that gave us endless laughs and memories. 

Don't let my blond moment scare you. I promise I will take excellent care of your children one day.

Prayers

Our hearts have been heavy this weekend. Friday morning Sam Haygood lost his earthly battle with cancer and began his eternal life in Heaven. Sam and Walker were pledge brother's at Auburn, and his sweet wife Abby was an ADPi.

As the news of Sam's passing quietly spread that morning, a dear friend perfectly captured what so many of us were feeling...

"I'm so glad we know Jesus and have the hope and peace that he is now in Heaven and free from all that he endured these past 4 years.

Ugh. Sometimes it's hard to grow up."

Amen to that.

Please lift in prayer Sam's wife Abby, his sister Cait, and their families during this time of unthinkable sadness. Click here to read a wonderfully written post by Krisan...

WAR EAGLE!

(be forewarned, this will be L-O-N-G...)

It was truly the trip of a lifetime. Not just a vacation, but an experience, and one that that we were fortunate to be a part of and to share with some of our best friends. Some of the details may not be of interest to the general public, but I want to have them documented in case they become less clear as time goes on. Some of the photos are repeats from my post a few days ago, but I wanted them all in one place for memories' sake. Without further ado...

Friday
-drive to Nashville
-lunch with the Griesheimer's at McDougal's (maybe the best chicken fingers ever?)
-arrive in Phoenix to meet the Elliott's (sans Lucy & Charlotte, who were missed!) and a MASS of orange and blue in the airport and equal school spirit on display around the city
-"Mr. Fain" gets a lecture from rental car employee Sue (I tried to Google image various phrases to see if I could find a Sue-look alike to give you a better visual, as she was maybe the most memorable character on our trip, but alas, my search came up empty) about proper rental procedure and safety
-pick up our wheels for the trip and make sure it has appropriate Auburn decor (we unfortunately only had two orange shakers to hang out the windows - other fans came much more prepared with flags and decals)

Saturday
-leave Phoenix in the a.m. and head north to Sedona

-the Elliott's share our love of Mexican food so we took advantage throughout the trip. Mexican food in the Southwest is simply fabulous.
-lunch at El Rincon in Sedona

-headed north through Oak Creek Canyon where we were greeted with TONS of powdery snow that made for excellent snowball throwing

-the next several hours of the trip will be getting a blog post of their very own, but to whet your appetite... what do a longitude/latitude misinterpretation, GPS coordinate epic fail, major blonde moment, and a Navajo Indian reservation have in common? Stay tuned for the story, it's fantastic.
-arrive at the Grand Canyon! Cold, snowy, beautiful, overwhelming, and totally worth the drive.

-dinner in Flagstaff at a fabulous Greek restaurant
-long drive home

Sunday

-pep rally in downtown Scottsdale. I've heard different accounts of exactly how many Auburn fans were there, but it was ridiculous (the top left photo shows a glimpse of the thousands of fans turned away b/c they couldn't let anyone else in the actual pep rally for safety reasons).

-dinner at Brazilian steakhouse Fogo de Chao. Walker will be making a guest blog appearance to share the experience. There was much strategy devoted to his and Reid's quest to consume the maximum amount of red meat as humanly possible.

Monday
-GAME DAY!
-arrive at stadium
-reunions with college pals
-tailgating

-3+ hours of nervous muscle clenching

-the ENTIRE stadium standing the whole game

 -it was sort of surreal. And awesome. WAR EAGLE!!

Sunday
-farewell lunch in Scottsdale

-dinner in Vegas with college buds Adam & Erin during our layover
-long flight to Nashville
-greeted by sweet Eric who stayed up super late to get us at the airport
-arrive at Griesheimer's to find early birthday gifts from my fabulous SIL's

Wednesday
-drive to B'ham, amazed at the ridiculous amount of snow that accumulated in the South while we were gone!

It was nothing short of fabulous, and we are beyond excited to have the experience. WAR EAGLE, and hope all you Auburn fans had as much fun as we did celebrating the win! We may or may not have woken up the next morning to "All I do is win, win, win, no matter what"...

Hello from...

Phoenix, Sedona, and the Grand Canyon! More to come...