Day Eleven: TOW Cookie Monster and Elmo pay $25 to see the Grand Canyon

After a short night in Albuquerque, we packed our stuff and made a beeline out of the Super 8 Motel.
I had been up most of the night because somewhere in Dallas, my stomach had decided to go back into stress mode and I have had severe abdominal pain ever since.

(Note Julia: I slept a lot better than poor Bean - nice to know that we hopefully killed all the bed bugs)

So my breakfast at Starbucks consisted of hot water, in which I soaked my good old German fennel tea.

 Julia on the other hand enjoyed a bagel and chai tea latte. (Note Julia: which tasted the same as in Germany - nice to know what to expect.)

 As we entered the Starbucks, we were asked if our outfits were a coincidence or if we had planned that. lol

When we left Albuquerque, Julia got really sad because she totally loved New Mexico.

 And I cannot blame her, the landscape is soooo beautiful! It looks so peaceful and enormous. Not like Alabama, where I got depressed by just looking at where and how people live...
(Note Julia: But I guess I would have loved every city we reached after 12 hours on the road and the last hours first driving looking into the sun and then in the total dark. All I could see were the signs saying "beware of rocks" - nice)

We got to Arizona in just 3 short hours and had lunch at Subway's. Well, Julia did. I had crackers.

Since it was only noon, we decided to head straight to the Grand Canyon instead of checking in at the hotel beforehand.

We drove up to Tussayan and then to the National Park, where we payed 25 USD to get in. Julia nearly fainted.

The view was pretty nice, the weather really was perfect.

 (Note J: We with a lot very strange tourists around us (yes, we are tourists too but we are cool and totally rocked our shirts)

See, this is me excited. (Note J. "And the academy award for best actress goes to Bine")

 This is me, well not so excited. I am not big on nature...

This is Julia, trying to get over the fact that she payed 25 bucks to look into a hole.
(Note J: Because face it guys - you look into something that is not there. Somehow it reminded me of "the neverending story" (go read the book then you know what I mean). Okay bitching aside it looked pretty cool but that you have to buy a 7day ticket.... )

We spent maybe 10 mins there and then wandered off to the Visitor Center and looked at all the really cool souvenirs. *insert sarcasm*
(Note J: I was pretty sad that I had no empty bottle with me because you could fill up your bottles with super clean and awesome water there for free! Bine refused to empty her Mountain Dew and to give me her bottle.)

This is how we actually spent the most time there:

Then we had dinner at Pizza Hut, succumbed to the peer pressure and bought souvenirs and drove down to Williams. (Note J: The pizza was the smallest one I have ever seen, like pancake size for $6!)

We checked into our hotel at the same time as a billion weird bikers. I really hope they are quiet cause our room is right next to theirs..

We are reeeeeaally happy with our room!!

I hope I can sleep tonight! We both need some shut-eye... Tomorrow we are off to Vegas! Cha-Ching!:-)