Burp.

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. There's nothing sexier than a man cooking in the kitchen...

This was "our" first attempt at a fake ham in years.

We may be vegetarians, but we eat as much as everyone else. Everything (squash, carrots, potatoes, leeks, green beans, caesar salad) was fantastic, and yes, we ate it all! Well, what was on our plates. We do have leftovers.

Cheers everyone!

Of course, nothing is sexier to Michael than me washing the dishes after a big meal like that.

Friday morning led to a choice of two hikes. We decided on one labeled as "strenuous," and headed to a trailhead we had no idea existed, just a couple of miles from our apartment - at the Golden Eagle Blvd entrance. There's a great parking area, with restrooms, and then you walk a bit through a nice neighborhood with feather's embossed in the sidewalk to show you the way.



There's a cactus with an odd growth on it there, and here are our intrepid hikers for the morning. We were being guided by Kevin, who likes to take on all the long treks in the McDowell Mountains, and beyond. They do fitness hikes every Friday, and since Michael has off on Fridays, guess what we'll be doing?



The plan was to do the Sonoran Trail and then see how we felt. We'd either turn around then or continue on. The trails are beautifully groomed, well marked, and very easy to traverse. There are even helicopter pads (more than 1) to rescue you should you need it.

We decided to keep going and added the Western Loop Trail to our trek. This one had much more of an elevation gain, and was much steeper, but it's not that long, and it's well worth it.

And at the top, you get this fantastic view.

Can you see the fountain spouting off in the lower left-hand corner of this 1st photo?

And then we headed back. There was a period there back on the Sonoran Trail that seemed waaaay steeper than we'd remembered. It didn't look bad, but it was a loooong, steady slog up an incline that we were quite happy to put behind us. If you take it at a decent pace, you might not notice it, but when you're pushing through to work off your stuffing, or whatever, it's quite a calorie-burner.

In the end, we ended up doing almost 10 miles in just over 4 hours. Not too shabby. And then we got home and ate!