Grand Canyon: Bearizona & Imax

Sunday was a packed day. We had decided that we would have a Church service at the rental house. I would preach in the morning and Dad in the evening. Paul was selected to be the song leader. In between we were going to visit Bearizona & the Grand Canyon Imax. Stacy had the day planned out to the minute and we needed every one of them to make sure that we were able to get everything in that was planned.

The day started slowly enough, with my sermon on a Christian's Standing & State. This is the principle that our standing before God is unchanged by our daily actions, but God expects us to live a godly life and our actions affect our relationship with God and our perception before man. I enjoyed teaching it because involves turning to many verses in the Bible. I always figure that it is best to let the Bible do the teaching.

After an approximately hour long Church service we packed our lunch and went to Bearizona. Bearizona is located in Williams, AZ just off I-40. It is a Drive-Thru wildlife park and a small zoo. While we were there, we got to see the High Country Raptor show which featured several Birds of Prey flying right over our heads. The kids loved it as the birds would fly low enough for you to touch them as they went back and forth across the audience. Of course, we were warned not to raise our hands or interfere with the birds while flying. The other activity was feeding the otters. The kids loved that part.

Next was the bus trip through the wildlife park. The facility had two buses that were going to go through together, but the one we were on broke down. So everybody hustled off the bus to try and get a seat on the other one. Just about everybody fit on the one bus except our group. They said they would have the bus go through again as soon as this group got through. So we ate our lunch and when the bus came back we were the only people to get on. Yes, we had a private bus tour through the wildlife park. The trip started with the Dall & Big Horn Sheep, went through the baby bears, the white & regular Bison, the Gray & Arctic wolves, and finished with the stars of Bearizona: the Bears.

It was warmer than the previous day, but it was cloudy and we weren't exercising as hard so we felt colder. At the end of Bearizona we all got hot chocolate and drove to the Imax. The Imax was just outside of the Grand Canyon, it was almost an hour drive from Bearizona. The Imax was almost great. It was produced by the National Geographic, so you can expect a few things... Amazingly beautiful shots of the Grand Canyon, placing Indians on a pedestal, and commenting on the arrogance of White Man. Once you got through the introduction, the movie was excellent. It was about John Powell, the first man to successfully navigate the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. The movie was excellent, showing both the majesty of the Grand Canyon and the danger of the Colorado River. It ended with happy families taking white-water rafting trips in the Colorado River. Once it was over I asked the kids if they wanted to do that. Elisabeth was all for it, Matthew wasn't so sure. Later I found out that Page Arizona is the home to the Powell Museum. If we are ever nearby (which seems unlikely), we will be sure to visit it.

We ended the day with Dad preaching a message out of the book of Malachi., We settled down to bed having never set foot in the Grand Canyon, but ready for the next day when Paul and family would get to see it for the first time. Actually, there was some debate over whether or not Paul had ever been to the Grand Canyon. Some said he had seen it, others weren't so sure.