Late yesterday afternoon, Caroline, Jutta, and I drove up to Williams, Arizona, west of Flagstaff, in order to be well-positioned for an excursion to the Grand Canyon today, and from the photo, I’d guess you’ve already figured out my plan. We are at the Grand Canyon Railway & Hotel and are about to get onboard.

You might glean from the seats, from what you can see of them, that we opted for second class. This is hardly my mother-in-law’s first trip to the canyon, and the ride is a short one at little more than 2 hours.

The onboard live entertainment definitely offered a sense of Western flair.

Following our arrival, we needed to find a worthy spot along the rim with just the right view for what came next.

Jutta is being presented with the first rough draft of Stay in The Magic, my book about Caroline and my trip down the Colorado River a couple of years ago.

These moments are Jutta’s first opportunity to see details of our incredible 19-day journey down the canyon, and while looking at the accompanying photos here in full view of the very place our trip took place, Caroline is offering her a narrative of what things were like for us down below.

Time for lunch over at the El Tovar.

With the limited daylight of winter, there’d be no rest for the wicked (jet-lagged), and so, with little pause, we headed out for a walk along the canyon rim.

I believe this is the first time we’ve visited the Trail of Time since it opened right around the time we were heading down to Lees Ferry before boarding dories and our first-ever whitewater adventure.

As Jutta has obviously not yet read my book, and there’s a chance she never will, we are busy explaining that rocks such as this are what we saw a mile below.

The park service has done a great job in demarcating time using brass markers set in the walkway that demonstrate at what point in history and which geological layer you’d be in if time and history were a simple and short trek.

Of course, I failed to photograph the names of many of the rock layers, as who knew I’d want to refer to them in a blog post? Sometimes, I’m an idiot of immense shortsightedness.

That’s right, this is a rock that is just one of many all around us.

And before we know it, it’s time to appreciate a bit of sunset before tucking into dinner.

Dinner would, of course, be at El Tovar because style and ambiance dictate it to be so.

Some after-dinner star-gazing, and we’ll head off to sleep.