Saturday, December 31, 2016

Keeping the pace up and Christmas in AZ

We continue to maintain our active lifestyle here in AZ with Pickleball, Line Dancing and visiting with friends. Of course we always try to get some hiking in too.

We recently got together with our friends Ron and Patsy and did a hike at the Usery Regional Park to the Wind Cave. It's a steady uphill trail with great views of the Phoenix area. The cave isn't really much of a cave, more like an overhang of rock but still scenic.




Stairway to Heaven?

The Wind Cave

It was a nice cool sunny day for our hike and we had a great time getting some outdoor air exercise.

We stopped at the Wind Cave to have some snacks when we noticed a lot of chipmunks around us. They seemed to swarm as they became bolder and bolder and closer and closer as we ate. IT almost got a little creepy but it was still fun to see them running around.


The little black specks are all chipmunks

They like apples

Our views were amazing and we could even see some of the Phoenix downtown skyline in the distance.





Another fun day of hiking with friends. OF course we always end our hikes with lunch somewhere and this was no exception. Once we got back to the truck we headed to an great Mexican restaurant.




We haven't had a chance to be with our son, Chris for Christmas for about 5 years wince he had moved to Nashville, TN and then on to Mesa, AZ so this was a wonderful opportunity to get together. He has a very nice house and plenty of room to cook and have a gift exchange and dinner. We had already enjoyed time with him and his girlfriend, Audrey at Thanksgiving so this was a special treat.

We had the usual turkey, mash potatoes, Jello salad, green beans and rolls. Of course we stuffed ourselves. Very happy we could spend quality time together.




After dinner we watched some football and I think I may have even dozed off a little. Good food will do that to me. We made sure to call the daughters and my Dad to wish them a Merry Christmas. This has been a very good year and we've seen a lot of places and shares some incredible times with family and friends. Still loving this lifestyle. We only have 2 more months here in AZ before we hitch up and begin moving slowly east trying to stay far enough south until the weather gets warmer up north. We're beginning to put some plans together for that trek and once we fully work it out you'll be the first to know. Thanks for following along. So hard to keep up on the blog when we're having so much fun. I'll keep working on it.

7 comments:

  1. Another nice holiday with the kids! That hike looks fun. I've seen that big arrow and wondered what it was. See you in just a few weeks! Happy New Year!

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    1. Certainly enjoying our time here even more. Let us know when you get out of CA.

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  2. Nice that you were able to again spend the holidays with your son. Sure hope to be in shape to tackle some challenging hikes next winter. Happy New Year to you and Glenda.

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    1. No doubt you'll be ready to go next winter. We are having fun again with Chris.

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  3. Glad you had a chance to spend some of the Holidays with the Family.
    Be Safe and Enjoy A Happy New Year to your entire Family.

    Rick and Kathy Rousseau

    It's about time.

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    1. Always nice to be with family during the holidays. Hsppy New Year to you both.

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  4. The Sonoran desert is calling us! It's always a good thing to spend holidays with family and then some hiking too.
    Have a great new year and hope we will cross paths this year.

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