March 23, 2009

March 23, 2009

My sister Jean and her family came out to visit again to celebrate my birthday; I am still 39 for the curious. Since we know from last year they can handle strenuous outings, we took them on their graduation hike to the top of Picacho Peak. Despite being a pretty difficult hike/climb, they passed with flying colors. As a finale we took them to the summit of Mt Wasson in the Tucson Mountains. Now they are certified mountain climbers.

During our downtime, we did some touristy things like visiting Tombstone and panning for garnets in Sabino Canyon. The only negative was my nephew’s run-in with a dangerous denizen of the desert. No, not a rattlesnake, bobcat, mountain lion or scorpion…. a squirrel. Having raced to the top of Picacho ahead of his “huffing and puffing” relatives, he got bit in the finger trying to feed it. He luckily avoided a series of nasty shots when we learned rabies is extremely rare among rodents.