Hail?
There it was. The one thing that I was waiting to see after a six hour drive. I was finally here. I was staring at the gorgeous Grand Canyon. The reddish-pinkish view in front of me made me stop and look at it. It held me in place gazing and marveling at its beauty. “This is so gorgeous, Anya. Take a good look at the colors,” my mom exclaimed. “Okay, Mama. I don’t think you can clearly see me right now, but I’m right here, staring at the Grand Canyon. You just told me, to take a good look at the Canyon, and I’m in place, not moving, literally staring at it,” I said to myself in my head. I stopped gazing and went over to my dad who asked me, “I can’t tell if the Canyon is going down or out?” Now was the right time to pull out a joke from my pocket. “Well, there is only one way to find out!” I said enthusiastically as I pretended to jump of the edge of the Canyon. “Ha, Ha, Ha. Very funny, Anya,” my dad said while laughing.
As we were all leaving the first stop that we were looking at, I thought to myself, that was such a great joke, Anya. While I was in my thoughts complimenting myself, I noticed that the clouds in the sky were beginning to turn gray. “I thought today was supposed to be a beautiful day,” I thought, until my dad said, “It is such a beautiful day.” “Tell me about it,” I said exaggeratedly as I I made a eye gesture up to the sky. Then, it began to rain. We were all confused about why the rain was so heavy. Suddenly, a heavy piece of rain hit my cheek. I could feel the pain. “This is some heavy rain,” my mom said. We all at least thought it was rain, until I looked on the ground. “Is that ice?” I said confusingly. “It’s hail!” my dad shouted as we all started to hide under a tree.
I was very scared. I could especially tell that Kaelen, my brother, was, too. He even admitted that he was. “I’m so scared and cold, guys,” my brother said, shivering. “We going to die?” my brother asked. Kaelen was totally over reacting now. Mama, Dada, and I all replied to Kaelen is unison, “No, Kaelen. My dad decided, that when the hail starts to calm down, we would move to the next tree. “Okay, guys. On the count of three, we are all going to move to the next tree. One, two, three!” my dad said as we all scrambled to the next tree, which was a bad idea. The tree’s branches were not as close together so we could see and feel rain coming through the open spaces. “We should have stayed in the other tree,” my mom said angrily. Now we were going to move to tree to tree when the hail turned into something more like rain. Our mission was to get to the parking lots as fast as we all could, which is where the lobby was. We all then realized how far we we're from the lobby.
About ten minutes later, we were in the middle of the trail. My family and I had all found the back of a building. We all thought, “Maybe it is the lobby.” Before we could get to the front of the building, we had to cross a tiny stream. Although it was small, it was moving rapidly. We were all running over to the stream covering our heads, except for my mom. I felt bad for mama because she had to carry the heavy bag around her chest. So she had to walk, that meant that she was way behind us. “Mama is left behind,” I said softly. “MAMA!” Kaelen shouted loudly. “She is okay, Kaelen,” my dad said. One by one, we all took on giant step over the stream. First it was Dad, then Kaelen, and then me. We all waited for mama to catch up by the stream. Soon enough, my mom caught up to us and we helped her get over the stream. One left turn and we were at the front of the building. The building was the Grand Canyon Staff Lobby. We figured it would help us all to stay warm. Then, we all suddenly raced into the lobby.
As we got in, the door slammed behind us. I then look around the room. It felt like a bunch of little eyes were staring at us. I bet all the people in the room were thinking that we were a bunch of weirdos looking all wet and silly, but we didn’t listen to their minds now. We all scampered to the bathrooms. Since my mom and I were together, we quickly rushed into one of the stalls. We squeezed out as much water as we could out of our clothes. Then, we went to the hand driers to warm ourselves. Mama and I were the first ones to come out of the bathrooms. Three minutes later, my dad and my brother came out of the bathrooms. When I looked out the window, it was sunny and bright outside. My dad asked a lady at the front desk where the bus stop was. After she told us, we all said, “Thank you,” and then headed on our way to the bus stop. When we got on the bus, I said, “I actually had a lot of fun being caught in a hailstorm!” “Me, too,” Kaelen exclaimed. When the bus stopped to let us off the bus, we were at the “food court.” We all got a little something to eat. I got a burger, my brother got chicken fingers, and my mom and dad got salad and sandwiches. I got a Coke to drink, my brother got a Fanta, my dad got a Diet Coke, and my mom got a root beer.
After we all ate, it was time to leave. My mom was very prepared. Since my brother, my dad, my mom, and I all we're wearing sneakers, the socks and the shoes must have felt wet and disgusting and awful and uncomfortable, my mom brought flip flops for us to change into in the car. We could only change into them in the car is because we were hiking and we didn’t want our feet to get cuts. I think the wetness in my sneakers were the worst because they were the pillow insultes at the bottom of the shoes kind of sneakers. “Thank you so much, mama. You are the best!” I said happily. Five minutes later, we started to drive back another six hours to the hotel. “I am going to miss the Grand Canyon,” Kaelen said as soon as we left the parking lot. “Wasn’t it fun to be caught in a hailstorm!” my dad said questioning. “I know I did,” said my mom right after my dad stop talking. As we left the parking lot, I realized I was still a little bit wet. I tried to avoid sitting on the seat because it would feel weird. So I sat on my hands. I looked out the window so I could see the clouds. I just wanted to make sure there was no storm coming our way. The last thing I needed now was to get wet and cold, again!
