The Big 4-0

Turning 40 is kind of a big deal so I decided to celebrate my birth-week this year instead of merely my birth-day.  It has been a very fun and memorable week . . . I might have to celebrate my birth-month when I turn 50 (which, I must say, is sounding younger and younger every year).

I started the celebration with a Friday night walk through the Christmas lights downtown.  Here we are at the Gallivan Center with kind of an alien-ish glow.

(OK, that wasn't really a birthday event but the timing was right so I'm counting it.)

Saturday started with a birthday snowshoe to Lake Mary.  Look at that view!

 And look at those Cool People. . .

That could have been enough celebrating, but hey, it's the big 4-0, so we went out for lunch, then I ran off to see the Blue Man Group.  That was the strangest entertainment I've seen but it was a lot of fun!  (OK, that wasn't really a birthday event either, but again the timing is right, so I'm counting it.)  I rushed home from there to game night (another well-timed, not really birthday event).  I was trying to see how many of my favorite things I could pack into one day.

By this time, I needed a nap, but since it was the middle of the night, it was too late for that.  I caught a few zzzz's, then got up early for a geocaching snowshoe to Willow Heights (again, not really a birthday event but it was two of my favorite activities, and the timing was right so I'm counting it).  I have now seen Willow Lake in the summer, fall and winter.  I can't say that about many hiking destinations.  So far, it's beautiful in every season.

After that, I really needed a nap so I took one (another one of my favorite things). 

Wednesday was the actual big day.  Chris was the first to wish me Happy Birthday at 12:01 am.  Nicole was next at 6:30 am.  (She says the Facebook posts don't count.  She was second.  So there.)  I spent all day at school getting drawings, ornaments, and cute notes from the kids, and my team brought brownies with a candle.  That night, I met Diane and Gail for a walk through the Harvard/Yale neighborhood (they have really good Christmas lights) and dinner.  We had some unusual, but very tasty dishes . . . pizza with pumpkin topping, pizza with fried egg topping, and pumpkin ravioli, with hazelnut mud pie for dessert.

Thursday, I had a less unusual but equally tasty and enjoyable dinner with Joan.  We missed our other Edison friends, but since it was another one of those well-timed un-birthday events, I understand.  :) 

Friday was another game night (you really can't have too many of those. . . well, I can't anyway).

Saturday brought another hike with another great view in the morning,

 followed by . . . a nap . . . (does it mean I'm getting old if I have to keep taking afternoon naps?), followed by another delicious dinner with Chris and Tracie and A Christmas Carol at Hale Theatre.  The show was really good, and they did an amazing job in the creepy ghost department.

The crowning event of the birthday week (I say crowning because I rocked the tiara . . . Diane and Gail said so!) was one more hike to a place with a great view.  I was worried as we drove toward the meeting place since it was so foggy we could only see a few feet ahead of the car, but as we climbed a little higher, the sky started to peek out, and suddenly, we were above all the muck and in the middle of a beautiful winter day.

Rocking the tiara (you can't see it very well here, but the dog is wearing a matching tiara)

Birthdays are more fun when shared with friends. . . Dwight and Kim are fellow December babies.

How's that for a view?  Rumor has it there is a city down there somewhere.  I have no idea what the big metal pyramid is for . . . nobody else knows either. . . I think it gives the mountain top character.

All I can say is. . . Best. Birthday. Week. Ever!!!  Many thanks to all who celebrated with me.  I think I have the best friends and family in the world!!!

Wordless Wednesday

Hangin' with the Deli-Subs

The Deli-Kids love to go geocaching so, of course, we went.  I noticed there was a Darth Vader themed cache nearby so I took my fellow Star Wars geeks to go find it.  We were very impressed with the find.  You had to press a button in Darth's mouth to make a nearby ping pong ball shoot up, then use the lock combination written on the ball to open the cache.  Very cool!  We liked it so much, we made a point of finding several others hidden by the same guy.  We were not disappointed.  Cacher friends, next time you're in the northwest, look for goblindust caches.  He's right up there with himilecyclist in the creative hides department.  Non-cacher friends, stop rolling your eyes!  You just don't get it yet.  Mom Bread even liked them.  :)

We didn't find the cache here but we found a super-cool climbing tree.  I had to drag the boys away, even after telling them about the pizza that was waiting for them.  That's a seriously great tree.  When we got back in the car, Baloney emphatically stated, "I'm so uncomfortable!  It has to be at least 70 degrees in this car!" Yeah, it's freezing here.

I wanted to go for a hike so Mom Bread suggested going to the Dungeness Spit.  Here we are at the trailhead. 

Mom Bread and the girls walked partway with us, then hung out at the beach while Pickle, Baloney and I walked and walked and walked and walked.

We finally made it to the lighthouse.

We ate some lunch and Pickle caught a few frogs.

 

Then we took a tour, talked to the lighthouse keepers . . . members or the American Lighthouse Association who were spending a week there as volunteers because GPS has made lighthouses just about obsolete so they don't have professional keepers anymore,

and headed back.

 Pickle thought it was the greatest thing ever that the tide was coming in so the waves came up to his neck.

The next day, I dragged Mom Bread to Seattle to the mecca of geocaching, Groundspeak headquarters.  It was fun to see "the lily pad" and be the first to sign the latest log in the office.  There were people there who had come all the way from Texas and even Austria.

Groundspeak is in the Fremont area of Seattle, which has to be way up on the list of places with the highest number of street art specimens per capita.

Notice the top right. . . Noogie, top of head.  Love it!

I've been hearing for years about the favorite outing spot at Point No Point.  (So named because it is not a very large point of land.  I had to look that up.)  Pickle decided it was a perfect spot for his birthday party.  This is the treasure hunt that Cheese put together for them. 

 The priority at this party was to play, play, play.  Those boys did it right. They were wet, sandy, tired and happy!

This was the trash can (next to the recycle bin) in the area where we had the party . . . The words are too small to read, but it says Solar Compactor.  Welcome to the great northwest!

New Mexico

This was my first visit to New Mexico.  I had to add it to my "Places to Visit" list after hearing Vicki talk about it with such fondness.  We went to Santa Fe and Albuquerque on this trip. . . Santa Fe was my favorite part.  It's quite a charming town.  

 

Our first stop was the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum.  Silly me, I expected there to be a lot of her works there. . . There were only a few, along with a bunch of other stuff from this exhibit.  

After the museum, we headed out to explore the town.  Joan thoroughly explored the shopping possibilities while I checked out the local geocaches.  Linda went for the well-rounded approach and did a little of both.  Later, we met up to see the San Miguel Chapel . . . the oldest still-used church in the U.S.  It was built around 1610.

 The chaplain was giving a tour to a group of soldiers while we were there.

Down the street was a building that is supposed to be the oldest house in the U.S.  I think the folks in Mesa Verde would disagree since they built theirs about 800 years earlier.

We also visited the nearby Loretto Chapel.  The story there says that when the monks moved out and the nuns moved in, they didn't want to use a ladder to get to the second floor but there wasn't enough room to build a staircase.  They prayed for a solution and were visited by a carpenter who built this miracle staircase for them with no nails or other supports then disappeared.  They think it was St. Joseph.

The last stop was Albuquerque where we rode the world's longest tram (2.7 miles) to Sandia Peak and took in some great views.

Mesa Verde

After a few days at home, it was time to hop in the car and head out again, this time with Linda and Joan.  We spent the first night in Monroe and took Linda for her first geocaching trip.  We broke her in right away as we made an unexpected water crossing.  I think she's a fan, even after that.

 She found this one all by herself!

 Yesterday morning we headed off to Mesa Verde where we took a Twilight Tour of Cliff Palace led by "Lucy Peabody."  She was called the mother of Mesa Verde for her work in the early 1900's to preserve the park.  She had a big part in getting it to be a national park. 

Today, we headed back to the park for a tour of Balcony House.  From the trailhead, you couldn't see it at all.  It was underneath.  We had to climb a big ladder to get to it.

We made it!

Once inside, we saw some kivas and other rooms and learned about what they know about the Ancestral Puebloans (formerly known as the Anasazi).  One of the guides says that about every five years there is a major theory change so don't get too attached to anything you think you know now.

 These were used for grinding corn, which, along with squash, beans, animals, and seeds, was what they ate.

We had to climb through a tunnel and back up another ladder to get out.

There was a great view from the top!