Wednesday February 11

Wednesday was another early morning for us. I was determined to have Canyon Redemption so we got up early and headed out the door straight to the canyon. We stopped at the same little coffee truck on our way out for coffee and vegan muffins. Traffic was light, but once we hit the canyon road we were slowed by all the hairpin turns and incline. Even with the slow climb, we appeared to be the first people to arrive at the canyon lookout – the parks department was still in the process of cleaning the bathrooms as we parked. I hoofed it up the stairs to the lookout and was rewarded with a lovely view of the deep canyon with the sun just beginning to shine into the walls.

Once again, I can't even tell how this looks because the screen on this netbook sucks so bad... I can't wait to edit these properly!

Though we did not have a clear day, we do have more dramatic lighting from the clouds and sunbeams. Most of my shots are done in a series to be stitched together into panos, so I won't be able to get those together until after I get back home and work in Photoshop... but I have high hopes for some amazing images!

We continued the climb up from the main canyon viewpoint to stops along the side of the road, where we had a great view of the waterfall across the canyon.

At another stop we enjoyed a different viewpoint of the canyon and river below

See the helicopter?  There is your scale reference.

We continued up the road to the end of the pavement, which is the beginning of a hiking trail with incredible views down to the ocean below. Unfortunately at this point in the day, the clouds had rolled back in and we had a gray ceiling overhead which dampened my ability to get any shots of the canyon below. I have some, but they're going to require a decent screen before I decide if they are sharable.

Here is a view of the ridge with the beginning of the hiking trails... I actually had a bit of a panic attack up here, as I'd only been wearing my gym shoes and the constant mist made the red mud quite slick. I slipped in a few spots going down the hill to a different viewpoint (holding my camera on the extended tripod and wearing the rest of my gear on my back.)

Having accomplished all we could before the clouds rolled in, we gathered the gear back in the car and headed down to sea level. By this time we were all pretty hungry for lunch, so we decided to try a little roadside place which we'd heard good things about.

I was unable to eat most of what they offered, but the wonderful ladies running the place ran through my list of allergens and fixed me up with their Thai Spicy Shrimp and boiled potatoes. It was just the right amount of spice for me. 

On the way back to the room we stopped off to do a little shopping, and then decided to call it a day on the adventuring so that G could spend some time checking in on her homework, and I could do a little laundry and work on backing up photos. Once G finished her homework, we headed down to the pool where she could swim and I could sit in the sun and supervise. There seem to perpetually be kids around her age at this pool, so she had an easy time making friends for the evening's pool slide adventures.

For dinner, we went back and forth on potential options, then as we were walking down to the car G turned her foot the wrong way on the stairs and scraped up the side of her toe. When I saw it swelling, I directed her back up to the room to get ice and a bandaid, and D decided that we should just try out the pizza place next door. Bobby V's Pizza turned out to be some of the best pizza we've had anywhere, so dinner wasn't a bust after all, and we had the chance to just chill in the room and not worry about driving directions or traffic.