October 16th: Some Hiking and a Wedding

I slept pretty well at the hotel but was definitely still on East Coast time...I was up well before 6am. Oh well. After a while Jen got up, too. She went out for a run, and I went to check out the breakfast buffet. It was pretty good, and after I finished I took my coffee and did a little exploring.

The hotel has a deck on each level with comfy chairs, firepits, and regular tables and chairs. There were some pretty sweet views.

I eventually grabbed a table near our hotel room and sat down to finish my coffee. A couple minutes later, my buddy Dan showed up! He used to work with us in Virginia, too, and like Jen had transferred to San Diego a couple years ago. He had his two little boys with him, so they hung out for a little while and we caught up a bit while I finished my coffee.

I made a quick stop at the room after saying goodbye to Dan, changed into some hiking clothes, grabbed my camera gear, and a short drive later, I was at Timmy and Tara's house. The wedding wasn't until the evening, so I had plenty of time for a hike in the morning!

I got to spend a few minutes saying hi to Timmy, Tara, and Simba, and getting to know their son, Canyon. Their friend Dawn came over shortly after I got there, and we all piled into the FJ Cruiser for the short ride to our hike.

Even the parking lots are pretty out here.   :)

When I'd asked Timmy if he was up for a hike Sunday morning, he said he had a really good one in mind. He wasn't kidding! We wound up hiking Broken Arrow, which is where a lot of the Pink Jeep tours go. The trails go a lot further back, though.

It didn't take long to find some fantastic views.

We wound up hiking right past the smaller sinkhole that Timmy and I had driven to the last time I visited. This time they had a fence around it, though...I guess some people are too dumb to know not to fall into a sinkhole.

The path made some twists and turns, but it always seemed like there were great views no matter where you looked.

I loved how there was such different scenery on different parts of the hike.

Timmy occasionally bikes this trail and came across a small pile of rocks marking a line along the trail. I happened to click the shutter just as he was kicking them over the edge.   :)

The layers were just fantastic...I took a whole pile of pictures (of course).

Those lines in the trees are actually a cemetery. This is about as close as we got to it, but it looked neat from a distance.

We hiked...

...and hiked...

...and hiked some more. I was really impressed...Canyon spent most of the time napping in his carrier.

We eventually finished the hike; I think it was about four miles long. It was a lot of fun! We made our way back to Timmy and Tara's house, then said goodbye to Dawn. I hung out with them a bit longer, catching up a bit and playing with Canyon. They invited me to stay for their Sunday ritual: watching the Eagles game and eating tater tots and wings. I stuffed myself, hung out a bit longer, then went back to the hotel to get ready for the wedding.

The wedding was at Tlaquepaque Arts and Crafts Village, which is a cool collection of artsy shops with neat outdoor courtyards. I got there with plenty of time to spare, and even bumped into Andrew as he was finishing up pictures before the ceremony. I wandered around a bit, then grabbed a seat.

It's hard to see, but I promise Naomi and Andrew are up there! I wasn't about to spend the whole ceremony taking pictures. The ceremony was really nice, then we all went upstairs for cocktail hour.

When we did come back downstairs, the whole courtyard was set up with fancy tables for dinner. The food was fantastic (as was the cake), our table was a lot of fun, and it was a really good time overall.

They were taking lots of pictures with family and such toward the end of the reception. We made sure to get a controller picture, too. (I grabbed this one from Jen; I'm looking forward to seeing the one from their photographer later!). In the picture: Jen, Mike, Cat, Naomi, Andrew, Dan, and me. It was a lot of fun to have so many of us there! We hung out a little bit longer at the reception before splitting up. I think some people wound up getting together at the hotel, but Jen and I were both pretty beat so we went back to the room, caught up a little more, then went to bed. It had been a really nice day!