Appearance, Ancestry, and Me at the Grand Canyon

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Erin Whittaker, U.S. National Park Service's photo of the Grand Canyon in fog. (29 November 29, 2013) via Wikimedia Commons, used w/o permission.
(From Erin Whittaker, U.S. National Park Service; via Wikimedia Commons, used w/o permission.)

I stopped for several hours at the Grand Canyon on my way back from San Francisco. This was about five decades back. The massive gulch wasn't on the the most direct route, but I'd decided that seeing the Grand Canyon and Meteor Crater on the way was a good idea.

I haven't been back since then, which suggests that I was right.

I'd bought a big topographic map of the Grand Canyon while living in San Francisco, and had it with me when I was there. At the Grand Canyon, that is. Near where the South Rim Visitor Center is now, probably....

...I was flattered, and surprised, when two tourists from Thailand asked me if I was Jewish. I explained that I'm a gentile — although I don't remember my exact words....

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