Caving and Camping

Leslie and I and our friend Charles had an awesome weekend getaway to Tucson, Kartchner Caverns, and Sonoita Creek. 

We took off Friday night and checked out the Tuscon Night Life.

We got up early the next morning to catch our reservations to one of Arizona's newest State Parks. Unfortunately they do not let you take any photos inside the cave so I'll just post a link here. http://azstateparks.com/Parks/KACA/history.html

It seems like Arizona deals with caves much differently than Oregon or Washington does. Granted this was a pretty amazing cave, it seems like Arizona put more time, money, and politics into this place than Oregon would put into its school system. This was a huge cavern complex that was completely illuminated, had 2 man made access tunnels, 6 vault doors to enter the cavern and was 100% wheelchair accessible. We even got an electric cart ride about 500 feet from the visitor center to the Cave doorway. Not too bad for a $22 price tag.

After our cave tour we continued driving south towards Patagonia AZ and stumbled across a small annual "Blessing of the Vine" wine festival way off the beaten path in Elgin AZ.

We made it to our trail head around 3pm and hiked about 4 miles down to our Sonotia Creek Campground.

Keep an eye out for the Gila Monsters

There's also plenty of US Border Patrol in this part of AZ including Border Patrol Check points on your way back to Tuscon.

Post Backpacking Refuel at El Torero in Tuscon.

Las Vegas Road Trip

Got a quick weekend trip in to Vegas a few weeks ago to visit my friend Geoff.  We visited several historic monuments...checked out a couple art museums...we even attend church on Sunday...:)

FYI: The bridge over the Colorado at Hoover Dam is almost complete, so if you want your chance to spend 5 hours in traffic and actually drive on the Dam you had better get there soon.

I know where I'm staying next time I'm in Vegas.

http://www.arialasvegas.com/citycenter/

Geoff in front of the $25 all-you-can-eat-all-day buffet...looks exciting, but it's probably not.

Olympic Caliber Ostrich Racing

Turns out Chandler AZ has a history of raising Ostriches.

The annual Chandler Ostrich Fest includes Ostrich Burgers and Ostrich Racing see our video in the link. I see Olympic games potential. 

http://www.new.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=56490984122

Fossil Springs Hike

Leslie and I got an eight mile hike in this weekend with our friend Charles to Fossil Spings near Strawberry AZ. On the way there we fueled up with a refreshing Fudge Cheese Drink. It was a little different, but not bad. :)

Glactus

We had a fun weekend with Leslie's parents Jane and Caleb in town. One of the highlights was a visit to the Desert Botanical Garden in downtown Phoenix. There was a traveling glass art installation amongst the garden by Dale Chihuly from Seattle WA.

This Google Blog site won't let me make the images the size I want so I posted the best pics to the site below.

http://picasaweb.google.com/izaacspencer/PhoenixDesertBotanicalGarden#

We learned a lot more and saw some great examples of some very alien looking cactus. The Glass was very impressive.

Breck 2009

Leslie and I hopped over to Breckenridge CO last weekend to meet up with our friends Jamie and Kalle. A bunch of Jamies law school friends rented a house in Breckenridge for a couple months while they studied for the bar exam. Jamie and his friend Tiff invited us over while most of them were out of town taking the exam. Thanks Jamie and Tiff!

It was a little cold on Friday.

Our humble accommodations on top of the steepest, iciest hill you could ever create.

The top of Peak 8 is at 13,000ft above sea level and you actually have to hike about 200 above the top lift to get there. I've never been so winded but it was well worth the view and the ride down.

Tonto

Leslie and I got to see what it would be like to live in a cliff dwelling this weekend during a guided tour of the Tonto National Monument upper cliff dwelling.

We had a great National Park guide who taught us a lot more about the plants and animals around the area. We even got to try some of the wild greens along the 3-mile hike.

One of the 8-year old tourist along the hike got the unpleasant experience of having a bee fly up his pants and sting him on the leg. (been there kid). The poor guy was just standing there listening patiently to our guide when it happened...actually all of us were standing right in the middle of the 700 year old home when it happened and I couldn't help to think that maybe the bee was the reincarnation of one of the inhabitants and was kind of P.O.ed that fifteen strangers were rummaging around his bedroom.

Montezuma Castle

Leslie and I got in a short road trip up north this last weekend to see Montezuma Castle, a very well preserved Native American Village. We picked up an annual National Parks Pass so we're all set to visit as many parks as we can pack in this year.

(FYI: You can click on the pictures for a larger image)

Chinese New Year

Here's Izaac's new US/Chinese Litho Team and their families. A bunch of our Chinese team members put together a belated Chinese New Year Party this last weekend with lots of Chinese Beer and a ton of food. The group made almost 1000 Dumplings (Jiaozi)

...Someone also made Chicken Feet in the lower left corner...not too bad.

...and some real talent from one of our own teammates.

Phoenix First Friday

We dove right into the Phoenix art scene by walking around the Roosevelt Row Neighborhood on a First Friday. A cross between First Thursday in the Pearl and Last Thursday on Alberta. Thousands of people walking and shuttling around the streets of Phoenix for a great art scene. http://www.rooseveltrow.org/vendors.html

The Arizona Ghostbusters are the real deal! They were out and about during Frist Friday. http://www.arizonaghostbusters.com/

I also happen to come across a very unique place for lunch in our nighborhood this weekend. You almost have to see to believe. http://www.heartattackgrill.com/index.html

Serious Mountain Biking...Serious Crashing

Leslie and I kicked off Superbowl Sunday with a hike up South Mountain Park along part of the 14 mile National Trail. Good hike and great view of the entire city sprawl. 

This is part of the Trail. It's called Fat Man's Pass and it can't be more than a foot wide.

Here is a little nature tunnel near the end of the hike.

The hike became very exciting shortly after a group of Mountain Bikers passed us on the trail. I happened to get a video clip of them on a very technical part of the trail. About 300 yards later we caught up with them again after a woman in the group crashed and probably dislocated her hip. She didn't seem to be in too much pain, but she wasn't going to move and she was ~2miles from the nearest trail head pretty much on top of a mountain. Her friends called for help and a few minutes later a helicopter landed nearby to assist in the rescue. Hope she's OK.

Serious Mountain Biking

The crash scene with Mountain Rescue flagging down the helicopter.

Helicopter Landing on Trail