Fall Adventures In Tucson

Sorry we've been blog silent for a while here in Arizona. In the past month we got into the fall college football season attending both our first University of Arizona football game one weekend and then tailgating with buddies for the UA homecoming game another weekend. The tailgating experience was awesome, very similar to a Foxfield race, but a bit more family friendly :)

For anyone looking for deals on stuff you may or may not do/buy I highly recommend Groupon. Using a 2 for 1 Groupon, Sarah and I went on a horseback trail ride in the Catalina foothills. We had fun even though the ride was a bit too tame. I guess they're just not really keen to let a tourist try galloping their horses. The sunset as we rode back to the stable was spectacular!

We joined up with some of our Crossfit pals for a "Paleo" potluck one evening. The food was awesome, the silly feats of strength were entertaining, and Amanda's chickens were not nearly as fascinated with us as we were with them. I'm thinking we need to follow her lead and get into the egg business at the rate & price we're paying for healthy eggs these days.

We've hiked Madera Canyon a few times already but had yet to summit Mt. Wrightson. It turned out to be quite the trek. With ~4,500 feet of elevation gain from the parking lot, I stood on the 9,440 foot summit and had endless 360 degree views. The most remarkable feeling was the absolute stillness of the air on the tiny summit. I've never been at that elevation without constant wind. Interestingly, as soon as we began the descent the wind did pick up. We devoured our meager lunch and dreamt of dinner on our way back down the canyon. The 12 mile roundtrip hike took us about 6.5 hours and we slept very well that evening.

Finally, our Halloween costumes this year were last year's costumes pulled from the closet and dusted off a bit. Oh well, they served their purpose. We went to the costume contest at Hotel Congress in downtown Tucson with some of our neighbors. Our entourage consisted of Seinfeld's Kramer & Elaine, Hermione & Hedwig of Harry Potter lore, and Lara Croft & GI Joe. There were some great costumes, but sadly I shot very few photos. The contest winner was a dead ringer for Eddie Murphy in "Coming to America" and he had the impressions to boot.

That's all folks!