mediocre lunch for a fairly exorbitant price and bought souvenirs from a less
trashy National Park shop.
We finished our day in the 'Desert View' area of the canyon edge. On
the way we stopped at the tiny Tusayan museum and took a rapid self guided
tour through some fields. Actually the tour was round the remains of an 1185
pueblo village, not much to see and a little uninspiring. At Desert View itself
there is a 'historic' watchtower - dating back to...brace yourself...1933. Sadly
(or not) we arrived too late to go inside for a tour.
Driving back towards our hotel we were treated to a glorious sunset,
necessitating several more stops in order to 'ooh and ahh' the canyon, and
the taking of another 100 or so photographs. By dusk - between four and five
pm, we were knackered and so headed for early dinner at a restaurant near
our hotel.
The place was already busy and we were soon glad that we had
arrived early as we received slow and inattentive service (and by inattentive I
mean ‘rubbish’). The food was ok, certainly not great - including as it did a
stroganoff served with rice on a bed of pasta. Nevertheless we decided to
order pudding, but then changed our minds when the server did not come for
our order and we realized we would probably be ordering breakfast by the
time he returned. Instead we headed back to our room, feeling a little less sick
and intending to go for a short swim. As it turned out this was not our lucky
night because the pool was closed. The reason? It was due to the presence of
(in the receptionist’s own words) ‘child poop!’ This took out the one leisure
activity available to us, forcing a return to the room and a flick through the TV