Flagstaff Expectation: Rough and rugged mountain men with people still panning for gold in the streets.
Flagstaff Reality: The city itself was wearing a kitschy scarf, skinny jeans, and 80's style plastic rimmed glasses. We've never seen a higher concentration of hipsters. This town was a town before mountains were cool.
In an attempt by businesses to cater to their Hippies and Hipsters, trying to find a restaurant in downtown Flagstaff that actually served any variation of meat was a challenge. Upon settling on a micro brewery, Erin promptly ordered a "Herbivore Burger" (basically a Garden Burger) so as not to be shunned by the locals.
After lunch, we too felt we deserved more time to sleep and took a 2 hour nap. Having rested as much as possible (before it turned into full-on sleep and we woke up at 1:30am wide awake), we dragged ourselves out of bed to head to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. Along our drive, we saw numerous signs pointing us in the direction of "watchable animals," and with unfortunately high expectations of a chipmunk Rockettes line or elk reciting Shakespeare, we alas did not manage to find any real "watchable" animals. Grand Canyon area wildlife is definitely not as talented as we would have hoped.
As we arrived at the mammoth South Rim Visitor Center and leaving our car quite obviously parked in the monstrous "Itchy Lot," we began walking towards the rumored splendor of the canyon. As we walked and walked and walked, we couldn't help but wonder, where the f*#k is this actual canyon?? Amid a maze of foreigners, foreigners, and a few sprinkled in Americans, we were finally able to locate a hole in the ground. It was rather disappointing, not exactly the splendor we had imagined. Upon realizing that we were gazing at a small hole in the pavement, we continued our search. Strapping on our Magellan caps we managed to navigate our way to what seemed like the end of the earth. Quite literally, the earth ended and dropped off into canyon oblivion. We believe that 'Grand' is not a strong enough word to describe the expanse of this canyon. We will be sending a thesaurus to the National Parks Service with several suggestions highlighted.
Tourist mode kicked in rather quickly, pictures were snapped at an alarming rate with little concern for aim and quality; there was a bit of a sensory overload. Julie was so moved by the canyon that she practiced her newly discovered parkour skills on every available rocky surface, followed by an attempt to climb over the railing and down to the abyss. Her cries of "Hardcore Parkour" were heard from rim to rim. Sunset was rapidly approaching, and we navigated Thor to the Village. A little known fact; parking at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon is a competitive sport, and in some cases a contact sport. Managing to snag a spot and dashing as quickly as our oxygen deprived lungs would allow, we arrived in time to watch the sun sink beyond the crags, casting shadows that can't adequately be captured by photography. Satisfied that the sun had completely sank away we raided a few gift shops, balked at the prices and headed back to find Thor. 
During our seemingly interminable trek back to our parking spot we were greeted by a half dozen deer grazing along the roadside. In wide eyed awe, Erin snapped a few pictures, only to realize that the deer were indeed zombies. The glowing eyes, menacing stance, and distinct look that said only one word... "brains". Picking up the pace we found ourselves only a short distance from an shockingly burly elk. We were cautious, and took pictures from afar. Other tourists had less trepidation of the half ton antlered animal. A woman was playing 'elk paparazzi', snapping full flash pictures inches from the creatures face. Watching from afar, we could only hope that she would be smacked by the large ungulate.
Narrowly escaping our zombie deer attack, we made our way back to Flagstaff to begin to prepare for our two day drive home.
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