今日はずっとグランドキャニオンで過ごしました。フラグスタッフを昼前に発って、昼ごろグランドキャニオン・サウスリムに到着し、壮大な景色を満喫しました。。。といいたいところなんだけど、実のところ、ふ～んってかんじ。。。一昨日、昨日と、ニューメキシコからアリゾナにかけての、ものすごいパノラマ景色の中を走り続けてきて、その想像を絶する景色を見ながら、きっとグランドキャニオンはもっとすごいだろう、これよりもっと感動するんだろうと期待を膨らましすぎたらしい。前菜をあんまり食べ過ぎてメインまで胃がもたなかったという感じでしょうか。バージニアから飛行機で飛んできて、グランドキャニオンを一日目に見たら、身の毛がよだったのかもしれないと思うけど。動画を２つどうぞ。
We spent all day in Grand Canyon today. We left Flagstaff before noon, arrived in Grand Canyon, South Rim, past noon, and enjoyed the gorgeous scenery... Well, to tell the truth, we weren't as impressed as we expected ourselves to be. For the past two days, we had drove through the ever-changing panoramic sceneries of New Mexico and Arizona, while thinking that Grand Canyon would be much more. We just inflated our expectation way too much, maybe. It's like you had too much appetizers and you are full before moving onto entre. If we had flown in from Virginia and visited Grand Canyon on the very first day, it would have been different. Here are two video clips.
グランドキャニオンを観光してから、夜7時半ごろまたフラグスタッフに戻ってきて（フラグスタッフは、グランドキャニオンへのゲートウェイなので）、今日はCampus Coffee Beansというカフェの駐車場でオフィス開設。案の定ワイヤレス・ネットワークに接続できたので、携帯電話とメールとで相変わらず引越し会社と交渉。荷降ろしの日はまだ決まらない。追加料金の件もはっきりしない。最後にまたpriceline.comで、30マイル南下したところにあるセドナという街にホテルをとる。夕食を近くでとってから、セドナまで車を走らせる。実はこの道、明るければずいぶんと風光明媚なルートらしいけれど、もう夜10時過ぎだったのであたりは真っ暗。何にも見えない。”なんか損した気分だねえ”と言いつつ、真っ暗な空をみんなで見上げたら、なんと！満点の星！車を停めて4人で空を仰ぐ。天の川もくっきり。娘いわく、”なんだか宇宙に浮かんでいるみたい！” 流れ星も見えました。
After enjoying Grand Canyon, we came back to Flagstaff again (Flagstaff is a gateway to Grand Canyon), and we chose a parking lot in front of a cafe called Campus Coffee Beans as today's temporary office. We got connected to wireless network okay, and along with cell phones, we restarted the negotiation with our mover. We do not know yet when the delivery is going to be. They are not very clear about the additional charge yet. After we have done what we should, we booked a hotel in Sedona, AZ, which is only 30 miles south to Flagstaff. We had dinner first and drove down to Sedona. Actually this route from Flagstaff to Sedona is renowned for its beauty. However it was past 10:00 and totally dark all around. "We missed a lot," said my husband, and we all looked up the dark sky sad. Well, do you know what we saw? Thousands of stars! We were able to see Milky Way so clearly. We parked our car and four of us were together under the wide sky with full of starts. Our daughter said, "well, I feel like we are floating in the space!" We saw couple of shooting stars too.
