Ah its been a while since I updated the blog. But it had been maddening in the office for the past few days since I had to finish some work before I left Chicago. And now here I am sitting in London!
Grand Canyon was simply breathtaking. But I was disappointed that I could not spend enough time there. I just spent three hours and that’s way too short for such a magnificent structure. Friday evening we took our flight from Chicago and we reached Phoenix at around 10.45 in the evening. My uncle and aunt had come to pick us up and we went straight to bed on reaching home. We were stressed out after the flight too, since we were almost on the verge of losing our seats! Flights in the US are the organized in the most haphazard way that I have seen and many times people don’t reach their destinations on time due to untoward cancellations. Ours thankfully worked out fine in the end.
The next day we set off to the Grand Canyon. We went to Sedona first, which has an array of sandstone formations. It was beautiful and although the weather was hot and muggy it was bright and perfect for photos. We stopped for lunch by a river on the way and then it was another two hours or so before we reached Grand Canyon. It’s a total of about five hours drive from Phoenix. We reached the Canyon just a little before sunset and explored a couple of points. My first look of the Canyon took my breath away. It was so vast, so majestic and just so… grand. Simply beautiful. From up I could see the Colorado river in the far distance and it looked calm and docile unlike the pictures of its raging waters that I have seen. I would have loved to go river rafting and hiking into the Canyon’s depths but time as ever was short.
We hung around a little bit and finally it was time for sunset. I was struck by the changing colours of the Canyon. Every few minutes as the sun sunk lower and lower the rocks would reflect different colours. It was magical. Beautiful.
We left when it was dark and I was tired but happy that I had seen one of the wonders of the world. It was just unbelievable that I had actually seen the Grand Canyon. But I felt that I had not had enough time to absorb the place, to breathe its air and to hear the stories it had to say. It is after all more than millions of years old.
Just about two weeks later and it was time for London. I left Chicago yesterday, 13th, and reached London today around 12.30 in the afternoon. I felt sad to leave this city, which I had grown to love. I had done some crazy things and met some crazy people. It had its own bad sides but it had also a lot of good to offer. Chicago will always remain in my heart for the experiences it gave me.
Well, on that nostalgic note, signing off in a very jet lagged and sleep induced daze. More on London tomorrow as I begin my sight seeing.