Taking the Kids: A bucket list in the U.S. that few take
“I’ve lost all my inhibitions being here,” joked Donise Walker, here with her husband and old friends from Texas.
Bressler and the other three guides take good care of us, from the extensive safety briefings before we started to teaching us geology — pointing out the nine different layers of rock in the canyon, one dating back 1.8 billion years — guiding us on tricky hikes, regaling us with tales of earlier expeditions, including the first and most famous, the 1869 expedition by John Wesley Powell to “the Great Unknown” – the last unexplored area of the United States. On the last night of the trip, they donned ties with their shorts and served us shrimp cocktail, steaks and mashed potatoes with cheesecake for dessert.
“Some of the guests seem more impressed about what we cook in the outdoors than how we navigate the rapids,” which is no easy task said Devisser, adding that at 31 she has no plan to leave soon. “Once you get your foot in the Grand Canyon, it is hard to leave.”
And as is often the case, when strangers find themselves together, we seem freer to talk about subjects we might not with family or friends — disappointments and divorces; having children, or not; what’s ahead after retirement — and the pandemic.
“I didn’t have a picture of how friendly and helpful people would be,” said Dr. Dayton Young, an ENT surgeon from Houston. My husband lent him his spare sandals when both of Dr. Young’s pairs fell apart. “You don’t expect that when everyone is so polarized in this country.”
We even managed a sandstorm with aplomb the last morning with winds that sent chairs and sleeping bags flying, ultimately delaying our departure for several hours until the helicopter pilots believed it would be safe to fly.
Emily Cleary thought her mom was “crazy,” when she suggested this trip and her friends thought she was crazy for going, but it didn’t take her long to appreciate being here. “Definitely go, if you can,” she said, her feet in the water below a waterfall. “It’s all awesome.”
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(For more Taking the Kids, visit www.takingthekids.com and also follow TakingTheKids on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram where Eileen Ogintz welcomes your questions and comments. The Kid’s Guide to Philadelphia, the 13th in the kid’s guide series, was published in 2020, with The Kid’s Guide to Camping coming in 2021.)
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