Oops, I'm way behind again. Summer was fantastic and I look forward to telling you about it... after I finish posting about last spring. Onward!
February started with a fun climb up Golden Gate Mountain with John and our friend Gavin. It's a pseudo off-trail adventure, up a peak that we have hiked/driven around and looked at from multiple angles. And now we have climbed it, yay!
Gavin is fun company plus he takes some excellent photos:
It's hard to see, but there's a house nestled high in the Tucson Mountain Park across the way:
I can only guess that I asked the guys to pose for a picture and this is what they decided to do:
A classic "top of the mountain" pose, thank you John!
Hey, there's another local maximum over there, we should check it out:
We found this message on the nearby peak, "Tian John"
I personalized it to "Ti amo John"
John ain't playing this particular "do something weird for the camera" game:
More Gem Show! We try to visit the gem museum on the annual "free day" to see some stunning examples from around the world. The variety of shapes and colors is amazing:
Some rocks from Brazil:
How does this happen?
Beautiful butterfly art:
Coatimundis!
Much larger pieces in a hotel parking lot, including an intricate crystal tree:
Our friends Steve and Andrew came to town for a long weekend and we did some hiking in the Catalinas. The highlight was checking out a plane crash site just off the Arizona Trail:
Crazy to see plane parts just lying around in the woods (and this was only the first of 3 crash sites we've seen this year):
We took Andrew to the Desert Museum, one of our favorite places around town, and we were surprised to see some new additions among the cacti:
Not just large, but also animatronic with sounds and movement, super funny:
Hello Mrs. Owl, it's great to see you up close again:
I believe these are Harris's Hawks, and I managed to capture a decent shot of one in the air during the raptor free flight demonstration:
Back up in the mountains and cooler air. Squid was in her happy place, complete with a stick to chew on (in between bringing it to us to throw so she could fetch it):
An interesting find at the base of some rocks:
An interesting find at the top of some rocks:
Funny tree selfie - thanks for visiting us and for an excellent weekend in Southern AZ!
And one last set of Gem Show pictures (for now). It's neat having multiple locations to visit, most of them free to access, and many of them accessible as running destinations.
This display is huge - it could use a human standing below it for a better sense of scale - incredible to see in person:
So many fun shapes:
You could almost hang out and chat:
A giant moon rock - this show brings some of the best specimens from around the world (and beyond!)
And that's most of February... I should be back soon with the one other story from that month. Thanks for sticking around!
