Lunch at El Tovar and Sunrise at Mather Point

 We made reservations a month ago for lunch at the El Tovar Restaurant. Another chilly start to the day, but of course we were very comfortable.

We arrived for our 1pm lunch reservation. Next thing I knew, I received a text message that my table was ready. We sat kind of in the back but had wonderful views out of the wall of glass overlooking the canyon. It was gorgeous!

This picture does not do the view justice. It was gorgeous.

Our lunch bill was $77 (!) with no alcohol. We cant afford to do that again!

We knew going in that it was very high-end. We enjoyed it immensely. 

Here's a view of the El Tovar hotel from the side, pretty cool.

We decided to try leaving the park and looking for groceries in the tiny town at the park's entrance. No dice, everything was more expensive than in the park! Lucky for us, Adam's Veteran status got us back into the park with no charge. We got to see more Elk (?)

We got back to our campsite. We decided to head to the local grocery store that has pretty much anything you need, within the park. 

We picked up a couple of postcards and filled them out at the tables in front of the General Store. There's a Post Office right next door too. 

Then it was back again to our campsite and out for a walk with the doggies.

Yes, that's snow off to the right.

You don't really think of cactus with snow, but it was everywhere

When we turned around and headed back, little Sheila Weela took the lead.

Adam built a big fire and we had a nice dinner beside it. A very nice evening. 

We woke at 5am and drove the RV over to Mather Point. We had heard it was an amazing place to watch the sunrise over the canyon. We arrived, turned on our propane heater and went back to bed. The sun wasn't coming up til 6:30 or so. We got a parking spot very close since hardly anyone else was here. We made coffee, bundled up and headed over. Just 100 ft or so from where we had parked. The temp was around 30F. 

Clouds rolled in right before the sun actually rose. It was still pretty awe inspiring!

We walked the 100 or so feet back to the RV and Adam made us a bacon and egg breakfast. See our little portable propane heater sort of behind him, keeping us toasty.

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