October 16, 2011: A “Grand” First Year

Written by on in Dinner, Tidbits and Treats, Trips, Wedding

One year ago today…

…was the best day of my life. 🙂

It’s hard to believe that today is our first anniversary. In many ways, October 16, 2010 feels like ages ago, but I can also remember every detail like it was yesterday. Bobby and I celebrated our anniversary weekend in “grand” Arizona style.

We arrived at the Grand Canyon on Friday night, just in time for the sunset.

Our first trip to this gorgeous national park was back in 2007, before I started ye olde blog. 😉 We found an amazing place to view the sunset back then and trekked there as fast as possible to catch it again.

Of course, on the way we had to snap a few photos!

It was a great way to start our anniversary trip. As we walked back to the car, we ran into a gorgeous herd of elk. I was in such a hurry that all the pictures turned out blurry, but fortunately, I managed to snag some video, too! Check it out below if you’re interested.

(Don’t mind my bumbling commentary.)

Once we made it back to our hotel, we grabbed a quick dinner and then broke out the top tier of our wedding cake, still in tact after twelve months and looking tasty!

Both Mama Bender and The Grand Hotel provided us with champagne, which was amazing! We decided to pop open Mama Bender’s champagne for the evening and save the other bottle for later.

We both agreed: the champagne was incredible, the cake was a lovely tradition. It was a bit on the mushy side, but still held its flavor and made for a good chance to reminisce over our wedding night!

Our alarm was set for 5:20 a.m. We wanted to make sure we were up in time to get to the Grand Canyon and start our hike as the sun was rising! The trail of choice was Bright Angel, which has a three-, six-, nine- and twelve-mile round trip option.

It’s a trail that zigs and zags all the way down to the bottom of the canyon, like so:

The temperatures were a bit chilly in the morning, but we were ready to go!

From there, it becomes impossible to choose just one photo to share with you.

The Grand Canyon is by far one of the most beautiful places on Earth. We couldn’t help but feel energized by all the nature around us, so much so that when we got to our 4.5-mile turnaround, we decided to go all the way to the six-mile, Plateau Point!

And so, off we went!

Eventually, we reached the point where the sun rays were shining.

And proceeded to take advantage of our shadows. 😉

With a little less than a mile to go, we were getting excited! Soon enough, the view of Plateau Point and the Colorado River was in sight — and it was breathtaking.

Six miles later, we reached the end of our trail and still had big smiles on our faces!

Of course, then I had to get another video! Except I called it “Phantom Point” instead of “Plateau.” 😉

We hung out on Plateau Point for a while, taking in the view of the river and refueling along the way.

Then it was time to make the journey home. What goes down must come up!

Once again, there are too many views to choose from. Click the thumbnails to make them bigger!

Let’s just say that the way up was a loooottt steeper than the way down! We challenged ourselves to keep our pace — 40 minutes per 1.5 miles — and found it to be quite difficult! As we approached the top, we looked out to see how far we’d come.

It’s hard to believe we were once at the end of that path!

When we reached the same hollowed out rock where we started, we knew the end was near.

Thumbs up for a successful 12-mile hike!

We reached the top at 12:23 p.m., approximately five hours and forty minutes since we began.

It was truly an anniversary adventure we will never forget, and a great way to celebrate year one!

Now that I’ve overloaded you with pictures, I promise the food will come in my next post. 🙂 Until then, I just have one thing to say…

Happy First Anniversary, Bobby! I love you and if this year was any indication of what’s to come, I know we are in for a fun life together. :mrgreen:

Hope all of you had a “grand” weekend, as well!

Abrazos,

39 Comments

  8. You were such a beautiful bride! Happy anniversary! And I love, love all your Grand Canyon pics. Gorgeous!

  9. What a lovely post and celebration, Jenn! I adore the shadow kiss photo! Congrats on a great hike and an even better first year together 😉

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