Justin got up early, just before sunrise. He hadn't set an alarm, but perhaps his unconscious wanted to get up and see the sunrise. Crystal's unconscious had no such desire - she was out. Just opening the door and peaking out, the red rocks were already visible. Since we'd arrived after dark the night before, we didn't know where, in relation to our hotel, the red rocks actually were. It turns out they (or, at least some of them) were just north of our hotel by a mile or so, and from the patio outside our room there were unobstructed views. It also now made sense why the airport mesa, just behind us to the south, but up on a hill, was renowned for having great views. There were only a couple other people out watching the sunrise, one woman drinking her coffee, and one man and his two small dogs. Justin walked around the grounds a bit to get some different vantage points, then peeked back in the room to see if Crystal was up. She was still out, and didn't even notice the door (and sunlight) opening. So Justin quietly grabbed the car keys and took the 2 minute drive to airport mesa, which was basically the same, but with a wider (albeit more distant) view. There were a good number of people up at the airport mesa, including some large families that didn't seem to appreciate that many people wanted to watch the sun rise in (relative) solitude.

Justin drove back to the hotel, lest Crystal think he abandoned her in the middle of nowhere. We got up and went to breakfast in the lobby area. We were trying our best to stay away from others, but many of the people were just milling around, standing right next to the food serving area, hanging out by the coffee maker, not realizing that they were "blocking" things in a practical sense. Perhaps the US will get better at this; perhaps not. We'll see (Vamos a ver). We got some pancakes, potatoes, eggs, and bacon, and enjoyed a quick breakfast on the east side of the hotel, outside. It was already getting warm, and the sun was pretty blaring. The breakfast area seemed pretty busy, but we had no point of reference. We ate quickly and got away from everyone as fast as we practically could. We packed up all our stuff, put everything in the VW, and headed off to the chapel.

The Chapel of the Holy Cross was built over 50 years ago, right into the side of some of the red rocks. We saw some cars coming back towards us on the road to the chapel, and took that as a sign that parking was already full, so we found the first spot we could thereafter. It wasn't 9am yet, so there were still a good amount of options. We walked over to the chapel, and saw a closed gate; apparently it did not open until 9. We could see it from where we were, and weren't sure we wanted to go inside even if it was open, so we just walked back to the car, changed into our hiking boots, and set off from there to Cathedral Rock. We figured if the parking was bad by the chapel, and it wasn't even open yet, that trying to drive closer to Cathedral Rock was not a great idea. It wasn't that far a walk, so we just walked through a residential neighborhood, on Highway 179 for a short bit, and then onto the road with the Cathedral Rock trailhead.

The road with the trailhead was, as we expected, already packed. People were trying to park anywhere and everyhwere, and we saw a lot of cars coming back towards us that had failed in their attempt to procure a spot. Some people were wearing masks, but many were not. Our non-scientific estimate is that about 2/3 of the people of color were wearing their masks, and that about 1/3 of white people were wearing theirs. Sadly, that did not seem very surprising. Given the number of Trump-Pence 2020 signs on some of the houses we'd walked past this morning, this was definitely not that surprising.

The hike up to the Cathedral Rock wasn't really defined, there were just some cairns to guide the general way. It was quite hot, and we had little interest in getting really hot and sweaty when we had a lot else to do today. Additionally, higher up the mountain it narrowed a bit, and so all the people were congregated closer together. So we walked up a good portion of the way, until it got to the point where the rock was fairly slippery. At that point, we turned around, took in the views for a short bit, then got a move on.

Back at the car, we thought about maybe going into the chapel, but looked at our watches and thought we could use the time better in other places. So we changed out of our hiking boots back into sandals, then just drove up and down the scenic byway, Highway 179, between Sedona and Oak Creek. There are plenty of scenic vista turnouts, so we just stopped in those briefly, and also took some photos with a really high-speed shutter as the car was moving. We did the same thing in Namibia several years ago, and it works okay so long as what you're photographing is in the distance as opposed to right near the road.

Rather than take Highway 89A to Flagstaff, Google Maps suggested we backtrack and get on the 17, so we did that from Oak Creek. By the way, Oak Creek, which we'd never heard of, seemed to be just as close to many of the red rocks, and also a bit cheaper, than Sedona, if and when we come back this way. Back on the 17, heading north, we must've reached whatever the magic elevation is (maybe 6000 feet or so?) where pine trees started appearing everywhere. There were tons of them, and a fair amount of billboards for legalizing recreational marijuana, which is on the ballot in Arizona this year. We wondered why this wasn't on the ballot in all swing states as a way to entice more younger voters to actually come out and vote, presumably mostly Democrat.

We saw a sign for Winslow, Arizona, and it made us think of the Eagles song "Take It Easy." Apparently there is a small park or something that memorializes the song and has statues of Jackson Browne (who started the song, but got writer's block right after the line about Winslow) and Glen Frey (who took the song from Jackson Browne and finished it). This was vaguely interesting to us, but Winslow looked to be well to the east of Flagstaff, however, and we didn't have (or want to make) time to go out there. In Flagstaff, getting to lunch required some good navigating from Justin and good driving from Crystal. We got off the 17 onto the 40, only to immediately get off the 40 onto surface streets that vaguely backtracked what we'd just done. There were some major rail lines nearby, and we surmised they had a lot to do with there not being a more direct route. After getting across the tracks, we turned onto Route 66. Justin was about to ask if we'd ever been on Route 66 before, then remembered that we went to college right on Route 66 east of Los Angeles. "So, besides that, have we been on Route 66 before?"

We parked the car right next to Proper Meats, a butcher shop that also serves sandwiches. We cannot remember how we found this place, but it was on the Google Document that we had that compiled all our ideas and rough itinerary. This morning we confirmed it was open, and since we'd be in Flagstaff around lunchtime, it seemed like a good idea. And it was a good idea, except for the weather. Since Justin was adamant about sitting outside whenever possible (so as to minimize risk of COVID), we grabbed one of the 3 tables outside. The issue was that there was no shade, and it was probably 85-90 degrees outside, plus it was mid-day. So we cooked a bit whilst waiting for our food. Moreover, since we were right next to the railroad tracks, trains kept going by and honking their horns. Finally, we were sitting outside right next to Route 66, and there were cars everywhere as well. In fact, right when we got there, there was some sort of a police procession; we weren't sure if someone had died, or it was a parade, or what, but all the motorcycles were loud. On the flipside, the table next to us had 3 female labrador retrievers, so we watched them do Lab stuff. When we got our food, it was pretty good. Crystal got a sandwich with beef and blue cheese and horseradish, Justin got a sandwich with pastrami, green chiles, grilled onions, cactus cream cheese, and aleppo pepper mustard. We didn't finish everything, so we wrapped up the rest and took it with us on our way.

On the way out of town, we stopped at a gas station to get some caffeine and also fill up the gas tank. Rather than get back on the highway, we were directed to use some surface street that turned into a two-lane highway through the middle of nowhere. It was called Highway 180, but it wasn't much of a Highway. It reminded us of driving through Garner Valley on the way to Idyllwild from San Diego. It was flat, there were pine trees everywhere, some taller mountains, and not much traffic. As we approached Highway 64, which is the north-south highway that most everyone takes to get to the South Rim, there were tons and tons and tons of mobile homes and RVs and other non-standard housing facilities off in the distance. We'd never seen so many mobile homes in one place before. Somehow this got us on the subject of the Cloverfield movie with John Goodman where he and two other people lived under a mobile home trying to evade an alien attack.

Anyway, we turned onto Highway 64 to be around a bunch of cars again, and pretty soon we were in Tusayan (pronounced like Lucien - loose-y-en), the last town before the National Park. It was a little odd, because you can't see the Grand Canyon off in the distance like a mountain, so it just seemed randomly busy in the middle of nowhere for no good reason. We got to our hotel, the Grand Hotel at the Grand Canyon (which we could never remember the exact phrasing of) at 3pm. We tried to check in, but they had no rooms on the second floor available yet, so they suggested we come back after 4 to get a second floor room then. So we just went back to the car and decided to drive in to the Grand Canyon and come back after sunset. From our research, our understanding was that the "central" area around the visitor center was difficult to park at until late afternoon, the "west" area required taking a bus, as no private cars were permitted on the western roads, but that the "east" area allowed for private vehicles, so we decided to go east and just see whatever we saw.

Our first stop was at the "Duck on a Rock" viewpoint. There is a rock formation that supposedly resembles a duck, and two guys had walked out onto the formation from the viewing area. Justin gave some thought to going out there as well, but then on the trail realized that he was wearing his Hawaiian slippahs, not the best footwear for walking around 1000+ foot cliffs, so he just walked back to the viewing area. The canyon was, to say the least, grand, but it was almost impossible to get any real idea of scale, and it is also difficult to judge depth instead of height, as normally we are looking up at natural viewpoints, not down at them. But, big, really big.

We continued east and went past Grandview Point, figuring we could hit that on the way back. So our next stop was Moran Point. At Moran, there were some tall trees growing amongst the cliffs, and also some views of the river well below (and well across the canyon). There weren't a ton of people, but there was one large family of people from India that were talking as if they were in their own living room, as opposed to around strangers outdoors. Justin whispered to Crystal "you think these are the same people as on the boat in Budapest?"

From Moran Point we went to the (current) end of the road, at Navajo Point. This is where the East Entrance to the Grand Canyon is, but currently that entrance, and in fact all of Highway 64 from Navajo Point to Highway 89, is closed. There are a lot of Native American people living in the area, and they are trying to avoid outbreaks of Covid, so they just closed the area. This is actually why our stop after the South Rim wouldn't be the North Rim, but rather Monument Valley - driving from the South Rim to the North Rim was going to be even longer than normal because of the road closure, so it made more sense to go to Monument Valley in between. At Navajo Point, there is a watchtower nearby, and it was easily seen by us, but it was closed as well. Navajo Point is roughly due south of where the Colorado River turns from north-south to east-west. Because of this, the east "face" of the Grand Canyon is very visible here, as is the river. Also, to the northeast we could see vast plains with some distant hills way off in the distance.

Our last stop of the afternoon was at Lipan Point, not far from Navajo Point. It had a short walk from the parking lot out onto a ridge protruding into the canyon, allowing for a more than 180 degree view. Also, if you were intrepid (or just stupid) you could keep walking further out on the ridge, giving even better views. Justin did this, and to his surprise found one other person out there, all set up with fancy equipment for the sunset. While Justin stayed out near the end of the ridge, Crystal stayed with about a dozen other folks kind of near the parking lot. From her vantage point, she got a picture of Justin standing way out on the ridge.

When we first arrived, we chatted with a couple people who were debating where to watch the sunset, and we told them that Navajo Point had really good views of the East face, which would likely light up nicely as the sun went down. We felt a little guilty if they went there, because after wandering around Lipan for a bit, it was far superior to Navajo Point. As the sun went down, the red rocks became even more red, the white-ish rocks became golden, and once the sun went down the sky became aqua and purple, along with the rising moon becoming very clear. We had no point of reference, but it was a pretty amazing sunset. The other person out near Justin ended up in a lot of Justin's photos, so Justin randomly asked him "hey, do you have an iPhone?" He did, so Justin Airdropped him a couple of the ones that looked the best.

Back at the car, it had cooled down enough that we opened the windows and enjoyed the cool air on a drive back towards the Vistor Center. It wasn't completely dark yet, but everyone had their lights on, and some people were antsy to pass and get back sooner. There was one Mustang that found a straight part and passed a ton of cars in short order, flying past us. As soon as it got in front, it came to an abrupt stop, and we wondered what happened. There was a big herd of deer right by the road, near the turnoff to Yaki Point. We were happy we weren't in any hurry to get back, as our hotel was a short drive from the park.

We got back around 7:30, and got checked in. At first they tried to put us in a first floor room, to which we responded "you told us to come back after 4 to get a room on the second floor, can we get a room on the second floor please?" Fortunately they just moved some stuff around and we got into our room in no time. We didn't know what we wanted for dinner, but we knew a couple things about restaurants in Tusayan - 1) everything was in walking distance, 2) all the reviews of everything were mediocre at best, and we shouldn't expect much. With low expectations in mind, we walked up to the pasta place that had the "best" reviews, taking stock of the restaurants we passed on the way. The pasta place was packed, and we didn't want to wait in a long line indoors, so quickly bailed on that. Then we tried one of the steakhouses we'd walked past that had a nice covered outdoor patio, and even though there were empty tables out there, they told us the wait would be 30-40 minutes, so we bailed on that as well.

Eventually we ended up back at our own hotel's restaurant, which had some more-or-less terrible reviews, but we could actually get a seat. It was indoors, which made Justin a bit uncomfortable, but it was so empty that we weren't seated within 30 feet of anyone else. As it turned out, dinner was pretty good. Justin got this pasta with a spicy meat sauce, Crystal got a flat-iron steak, and we shared a bottle of a 2016 Penfolds Koonunga Hill Shiraz that was really good. Go figure. We remembered we needed to do our Duolingo (we both had significant streaks that we'd been working on, and didn't want to lose), so we did that right after dinner. Then we got cleaned up and checked out some of our pictures and video from our first full day, then hit the sack.