Labor day weekend

 

We started our labor day weekend with a lovely 30 mile ride early Saturday morning.  Nothing too crazy, but definite progress in our ridding routine.  Its only been 3 weeks back in the saddle and we are definitely improving our endurance and speed.  About 8 hours later we voided the calories expended during our ride by enjoying a belated birthday dinner and mojitos at Fuego Bistro, a local, cuban influenced restaurant.

Sunday we set about on a hunt for some new hiking shoes for Jonathan's up coming Grand Canyon hike.  We tried two stores and ended up buying $70 hiking booties for Mr. Jackson. Our plan for Monday was to head to Prescott for a hike in the Prescott national forest and seeing that Jackson would be joining us we thought it might be a good idea to get him some foot protection.  He is undoubtedly a mighty dog, but his paws are mighty tiny so despite our best efforts we could not keep the little shoes fastened on his feet. The marketing on the box informed us that these booties would unleash the inner canine athlete. Thanks marketing department, but Jackson doesn't need no stinkin booties to unleash his inner athlete!

Our Sunday drew to a close with a lovely visit and dinner with Jonathan's aunt, uncle and cousin.  Its been quite some time since we've had a get together and we greatly enjoyed getting to hang out and catch up.

Bright but not too early Monday morning we started our adventure to Prescott, pronounced by many in this desert state like "biscuit" but replace the "b" with a "p".  The drive north included a very pleasant and much appreciated 20 degree drop in temperature.  We started our adventure at around 9:30 as we headed up trail 307.  The first 3.2 miles would take us up in elevation and provide a nice little rest/picnic spot near the observation tower where either a ranger or volunteer (we were not sure which) observes the forest keeping an eye out for wildfires.   When the towers are manned (or womanned in this case), given their consent, you can climb the steep stairs to view the forest below.  I'm not keen on heights, but the remarkable view was well worth setting aside the minor fear. The woman residing in the tower was very nice, quite informative and absolutely loved Jackson.  While she discussed the features of the tower and the way the maps and tools in the tower worked she held Jackson like a little babushka in her arms and he didn't fight it one bit.

             

                                                                                        

                                                                                                                        
                                                                                                           
After a refreshing break including a tasty lunch of jerky, crackers, cheese and trail mix we opted to head back down the trail.  The original plan was to make a loop which consisted of 3.2 up to tower stop, then finishing with another 5 + miles down, but recognizing that hiking really isn't my cup of tea and out of concern for J Bone, we opted to head back down the trail we came up.  At times Jonathan would carry Jackson to give his feet a break from the rocky patches and give his legs a little time to recuperate.  He was quite the trooper and a happy little pooch throughout the trip.  He was very tuckered on the drive home and for the remainder of the day, but overall seemed to have a great time.  His little puppy paws held up just fine, no cuts or raw skin even without the booties. 

                                                                                                                                 
When we got home and showered about a pound of dust off I set to baking, cutting and decorating cookies using the new Star Wars cutters I bought a week back.  Sure it looked like a good challenge, but doable.  Ha.  The cutters worked great.  But the frosting attempt, well, not so good.  I would have needed finer tips for the frosting application, and a whole heck of a lot of free time to get them the way they are supposed to appear.  It was refreshing not really caring that they were not achieveable because no matter how the frosting is applied, they're still down right delicious!

Harsh reality