Today we had the first of two days without any real activities planned, the only thing we needed to do was driving towards Scottsdale which would take us about 3,5 hours from Williams. But at the end we did a lot more than expected today.

We started with breakfast at the Grand Canyon Coffee & Café along Route 66 which was delicious. Afterwards we made some pictures from Williams. Williams is a typical Route 66 village which lives on tourism and that means there is still a lot off Route 66 visible of available. And as on every day this trip we needed to search for a couple geocaches.

And than it was time to leave for Scottsdale, we drove via a town called Sedona. Sedona is often called Red Rock County because of the beautiful red sandstone formations around the town. The pictures below look nice but in real it was stunning. We found it more impressive as the Grand Canyon, maybe because we didn’t see the Grand Canyon from below inside the canyon.

After the short visit we drove further to Scottsdale and about an hour before we should arrive at our destination the landscape was taken over by Cactuses. That meant we need to find a spot to stop since we had never seen so big Cactuses out in the wild.

After the short stop the road changed from 2 lanes to 7 lanes on each side that was a bit of a change after driving the last couple hours on low crowed single lane roads. But we were there just before the rush-hour started so no delays and at 16:30 we arrived at the Scottsdale Plaza Resort. As we stepped out of the car the temperature was 41°C which was 20°C warmer as the in-car temperature.

The lobby looked very luxurious and when we got our key we got a bell boy assigned to escort us to our room. The resort is gigantic so this was necessary. As soon as we arrived in our room we left again to get to the nearest Starbucks to look for the Phoenix and Arizona mugs. The Starbucks was on the opposite of the street so that was easy. After buying the mugs we went to Nimbus Bistro & Brewery for dinner and a beer.

At about 18:30 we were back at our resort and decided to check-out the swimming pool. there was a gigantic hot-tub which we enjoyed for over an hour before we left for our room. It probably sounds strange to get into the hot-tub with such temperature but it cools down fast in the evening, the lowest temperature tonight is expected to be about 25°C.

Tomorrow we hope to leave the hotel by 10 o’clock and drive to Palm Springs where our next hotel is located.

First of all I want to thank you all for reading our blog, you are about 60 unique visitors a day during the first 9 days of our trip (probably some twice due to work and at home). And for the few who dare to leave a reaction keep up the good work it’s nice to wake up and read something from you too.

Today was the day of leaving Las Vegas and continue our trip. The Venetian was really a great hotel of great quality so if you ever go to Las Vegas, please consider this hotel.

After waking up, packing the suitcases we left the hotel and we went to an IHOP for breakfast. We needed a good breakfast because today was going to be a long day. The plan was to drive to the Grand Canyon via Williams. Reason for that was that our hotel for the night is in Williams. I would be a trip of circa 270 miles. Because Sander felt very tired I decided to take over the wheel and drove the first 200 miles to Williams. Williams is a Route 66 town and that is something you see on almost every sign in the town (Family L. thanks for the tip to stay here).

After checking in we drove further to the Grand Canyon. We arrived there at about 3:30 p.m. The first stop was Yavapai View. This was the first time we really saw the Grand Canyon. And I would have to say it is gigantic. I was really impressed because it was so huge. We walked around a little bit and took a lot of pictures as we drove to our next stop, which was Grand Canyon Village.

We parked the car and enjoyed the views from here and after a while we took the shuttle bus towards Powell Point. And again there was an amazing view from this point. But our goal was to go to Hopi Point because is the no. 1 place to view the sunset in the Grand Canyon.

Our bus driver told us that sunset today would be at 06:14 p.m. and that is was just a short hike from Powell Point to Hopi Point. And the bus driver was right, after a 5-minute walk we arrived at Hopi Point and I can say again, views were beautiful.

As we were waiting for the sun to go down we took a lot of pictures and Sander also found a Geocache at Powell Point (he walked back to find it). As the sun was going down, more shades were coming over the Canyon. I could see the shadows move.

And at 06:14 p.m. exactly the sun went behind the big red rocks and it became dark. We were the first of a lot of people to go back to the Village with the shuttle bus after watching the sunset.

Surprise was that we could see the moon at the other side of the Canyon. It was a big moon because it was almost a full moon. But it was pretty difficult to take decent pictures of this, but for us of was great to see.

Then we drove back to Williams and had to pick a restaurant for dinner. I said to Sander that I would drive back to the hotel so that he could drinks beer or two. He decided to go to the Pine Country Restaurant, a typical American restaurant famous for its pies. We both ordered a steak and Sander asked the waiter which beers they have. The answer to that was: “We don’t serve alcohol in this restaurant”. So he ordered a sweet iced tea and for me there was unlimited pink lemonade. Dinner was not that great but the pies were phenomenal. Sander had a piece of Dutch Apple Pie and I had a piece of the Double Chocolate Pie. This Chocolate pie was huge but delicious!

We went back to the hotel after a quick Geocache at the parking lot. Now we are both enjoying a local pumpkin spiced beer in the bar of the hotel, which we got for free because we are goldmember of Priority Club.

It was a long day, but really a great day. Tomorrow we will leave Williams to go to Scottsdale.