Hiking!

I just discovered that we can see the fountain from our balcony (it goes off every hour).



Friday, we headed to see Amanda & Kevin, formerly of Solstice. They lived in Arizona when we did, but we didn't actually meet until we crossed paths off the island of Martinique. Now they live 25 minutes from us, so we headed over and ate some pizza. They had a nice sunset from their place.

Saturday was the Festival of Arts & Crafts. We were able to walk over and were surprised when so many vendors had been the exact same ones we remembered from 7 years ago, and in their same spaces. There were a few new ones, and I ended up buying a little purse. The fair is huge.

We also got a soft pretzel and a beer and had to laugh when we realized we were relegated into staying inside the "beer garden." We're not in Key West anymore!

People have donated a bunch of statues to the library/museum and community center. They are everywhere; here's a taste.


Also on Saturday, the downstairs neighbor came up and introduced herself, bringing some cookies. How nice was that? She didn't make them, but we appreciated the gesture.

Sunday, we got up early and had another beautiful sunrise.

We met JD (a pilot) and one of his friends, Robert (a mountaineer/biker), for a major hike in the Superstition Mountains at the trailhead (about 45 minutes from our apartment). We knew JD from the couple we were friends with way back when, but we never really hung out. JD visited us on Jacumba and on St. Kitts, so the relationship is different than when we lived here (but we still live pretty far apart). I asked for a hike for my birthday, and I got one. A 5 1/2 hour, 12-mile hike. Oy! But it was absolutely beautiful. Exactly what the mental doctor ordered.

 

Our first wildlife encounter was a tarantula that Michael almost stepped on.

Next up was a small, red snake that Michael actually picked up, but I wasn't fast enough to catch a photo of, and a frog. Near the end, we (JD, really) had a close call with a rattlesnake. I looked up when JD jumped back and knew immediately what had happened. Sure enough, JD had heard the tail rattle and had gotten out of the way before the snake attacked.



We lived here for 16 years and hiked a lot, and this is only the 2nd time that's happened. The rattlesnakes here are not really aggressive. They warn you, you get out of the way, and they slither off. Still heebie-jeebie though. When you have to worry is in the spring when the baby rattlers are out. They don't know how much venom to put out yet, don't have rattles yet, and can be much worse than their parents.

The trail was long but pretty easy (although we forgot about the fact that everything has spikes or thorns). The only annoyance was that we crossed a riverbed with loose boulders over and over again. It was like a hash in that we had to follow markers to tell us where to go - in this case a bunch of much-appreciated cairns. But they weren't always where we needed them (or blended in with the rest of the boulders), so we were quite happy that Robert had downloaded the waypoints from the 'net.

Note how dusty our car was after 5 hours in the lot (this is all over our TVs too).

I have to admit, I'm rather sore, and I've never been so happy to get my hiking boots off (they are too small). But it was worth it. Thanks to Reedi for the birthday socks (in many colors) - I put them on after the hike.

Afterwards, Michael surprised me by mixing up a mimosa to toast...well, lots of stuff. There were also tiny chocolate donuts for "cake."




It was the perfect day. Thanks to all of you who sent me birthday wishes, too.