Monday, March 28, 2011

Spring Break

Wow, it's been a while since I posted something.  Only four more days left in the challenge!!  That's crazy!! I can't believe it's already been 3 months.  I hope everyone involved will keep up their motivation once the challenge is finished. The IronHorse is still 2 months away so I've still got time to get down to 160lbs. 

I spent the last 5 days in the valley.  It just seemed to expensive to go very far for spring break so we opted to stay close and got a cool hotel with a cool pool and really didn't do much but relax......Sort of...   We stayed on the North side of Phoenix so every morning I left the hotel at 6am and headed on over to South Mountain.  It was such an awesome way to start each day.  I rode the 7 mile climb to the top which took about 40 minutes then flew back down in about 20 minutes.  On Sunday, they had what they call Silent Sunday.  No cars allowed in the park.  I was amazed at how many people were running up this mountain.  At least with a bike, you get to coast a little :).  Then to think of running down hill!!!  My knees would say "absolutely not!!".   It was really cool though to see all these people out there.  There was even a young kid (had to be about 11-12years old) riding his little scooter down as his dad ran down next to him.  Then of course there were the long boarders.  These guys are insane.  If you've never seen long boarding, it is very impressive.  These guys are nuts.  One small rock and your toast.  Here's a cool video.


On Friday, we decided to go hike North Mountain.  Wow, this is one steep mountain.  It's paved all the way to the top, but it is STEEP!!!  I have no idea how far it is to the top, but going up was much easier than going down.  My wimpy legs were shaking so bad on the way down that I just knew I was going to do a face plant while trying to maintain my wimpy walk/jog/run.  Both of my older boys along with my wife ran down.  Me, being the old feeble man that I am, did all I could to keep things at a walking pace (Remember, I already rode South Mountain:) )  That's my excuse anyway.  Here's the view from 1/2 way up. 
 This is about 1/2 way up looking east.  This is my 11 year old who had the energy to run over to another little peak just to have his picture taken.
On Saturday, we decided to do the Zoo thing. The Zoo, on a Saturday, during Spring Break................tons of people!!  Besides the millions of people though, it was a good time.  Keevan (our 2 yo) had a blast.  Of course as a parent, once you've been to the zoo, it's really not much different the next go around.  I did learn something though.  I never knew tigers climbed trees.  This tiger was at the very top of the tree.  It was amazing at how agile he was coming down.  So, if you're ever in Africa, being chased by a tiger........don't climb a tree.:)


Can you see him??


Down he comes....

 Isn't that cool!!??

It was a good relaxing few days.  Now back to the grind.  Hope you all have a good Monday.
Sorry for the lack of posts the past few days.


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