Fun Sunday

The kids and I had a fun afternoon on Sunday. The kids wanted to go to the Apple store in Northridge. Alex needed a replacement battery for his iPod Mini, Catie wanted to by a new PS2 game (Kingdom Hearts) and Nik just wanted to play with all the new Mac stuff and dream about the day he buys his iBook laptop. Then, after all our shoping commitments were done, we got to the fun part (for me anyway) a Geocache in a really cool location.

I have been wanting to do the Stoney Point cache in Chatsworth for quite some time. It's on the northern edge of the San Fernando valley, just east of Santa Susanna Pass which leads to Simi Valley. This area is infamous as the location of the ranch owned by Charles Manson and is cult of murderers. In a twist that only shows who is really in charge of this world, the exact location of the Manson ranch is now owned by Rocky Peak Christian Church. Is the Lord awesome or what!

Anyhow, back to my story. I knew from reading the logs on the cache page I knew the cache was near the summit. I thought since I had all three of the kids along I should find the easiest trail possible to the top. So, the most worn trail must but it right? Well we hiked almost the entire parimeter of the peak and didn't find an easy trail. OK guys, looks like we need to do a bit of rock hoping and scrambling. Still trying to find the path of least resistance. Well, we ended up doing quite a bit of climbing. I was very proud of all the kids, they did a great job. Even Nik, who is pretty cautious when it comes to all things gravity hung in there and made it to the summit. After snapping a few photos I checked my GPS to see how close we were to the cache. 15o feet and all I see is Down! After a lot more scrambling I finally made it to the cache, located not more that 18 inches away from a 50 foot cliff. Not as dangerous as it sounds, but still pretty exciting.

As with most climbs I've done, coming down is always harder than going up. Nik and I share the same challenge in this regard. Cautiously we worked our way down. The scenery was really nice. Had to keep reminding myself this was in the of a heavily populated part of SoCal. Our serenity would be shattered from time to time as we would run across graffiti on the rocks or patches of broken glass from beer bottles. Yep we are in So Cal afterall! Ultimately we made it down safe and sound. Thanks guys for sharing this adventure with Dad. For more pictures of our adventure, please visit our Family Web site.

Southwest Road Trip - Day Five

Home Sweet Home! The boys and I arrived home yesterday late in the afternoon. We were right on the fringe of a Pacific storm the whole day, but for the most part avoided the rain. After emptying the car, we all kind of blobbed in front of the TV and caught up on TiVo before falling asleep. The boys are still out cold as I write this. Today I'll get going on updating my Geocaching account with our finds, organizing all my photo's and working on the Wunrow Family web site updates. I'll be creating a photo page for the trip to share with family and friends.

Southwest Road Trip - Day Four

Today is the big day, The Grand Canyon! After and early breakfast we begin the 70 mile drive from our Hamton Inn hotel to the south rim. The drive on Highway 180 winds us through the Coconino National Forest, in the shadow of the San Franciso Peaks. We practically had the road to our selves this morning, a beautiful and relaxing drive. The traffic leading into the park was better than the 405 at rush hour, but not exactly delay free either. It took approx 20 minutes of stop and go to get through the entrance. Once inside we were reminded that it was spring break, tons of people and very hard to find a parking spot. After about 30 minutes of driving we found a spot close to one of the shuttle stops. We had a quick lunch of canned pasta and got our hiking gear organized before heading out to the shuttle. We made a pretty big mistake in deciding to take the shuttle around the village rather that walk the 0.3 miles to the rim. We were on a packed bus for almost an hour before we could get off anywhere close to the rim. I have to say the shuttle system in Zion National park is head and shoulders above the one on the south rim.

Finally off the flippin' bus we walked over for the boys first view of the Grand Canyon from the south. The boys were speachless as we walked up to the edge. No matter how many times you see this place, it does get pretty overwelming as you stand there and try to take it all in. It's just SO BIG! There is not a photograph ever taken that really captures the grandure of the canyon. The lighting on this side is much more dynamic than it is on the north rim. We hiked along the rim on for a mile and a half, stopping many times to soak up the sights and take pictures. It's amaizing how few people actually walk along the rim. I'd say it's less than 1 in every 100 or more. Once we arrived at the main village we stopped for a break. Around 5:00pm we set off for the Bright Angel trail. This trail actually takes you down below the rim, eventually going to the Colorado river and back up the other side to the north rim, a 30 mile one way hike. Since the sun was on its way down, we only hiked down about half a mile. The going down as not bad, but quite a bit harder on the way up. An even smaller number of people hike below the rim, we probably saw less than 75 people for the hour we were on the trail. It was a really neat experience, one that I heartily recomend.

Once we arrived back in the village, the boys were pretty tired. We got back to the car and headed out Tusayan the little town just outside the park. There was a cowboy steak house we had noticed on the way in. Alex and I split a plate of steak and ribs while Nik enjoyed an Angus burger and fries. The car was pretty quiet on the 90 minute drive back to the hotel. A long and rewarding day completed.

Southwest Road Trip - Day Three

We had a big day of driving today so I got the boys up earlying so we could have breakfast and still get on the road by 7:30am. New Mexico is on Mountain time while Arizona does not do Day Light Savings to they are an hour earlier, so the boys were a bit groggy as we started our drive. Our first destination is the Four Corners Monument, where the states of Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona all come together in a single point. Nik and Alex took turns posing with each limb in a different state, pretty cool. The photo at right shows the boys standing on the platform of the four corners. Since this is on Navajo Nation tribal land, it is a big money maker for the people. Alex got a cool Navajo ring and neckless, and Nik bought a refrigerator magnet of showing the four states.

Next stop, Wupatki National Monument. Located between the Painted Desert and Sunset Crater National Monument, Wupatki was a thriving Anasazi village. When the Sunset Crater Volcano erupted 800 years ago it buried much of the village in volcanic ash forcing the people to leave. Years later they returned and rebuilt the village, farming the newly enriched soil left behind by the volcano. There are several ruins from the village still in almost perfect condition. There is a virtual Geocache called Wupatki at the Wukoki or "Big House". We were able to walk around inside this amazing structure which is located on a large rock slab with an great view of the Painted Desert to the east and the snow covered San Francisco Peaks to the west.

Our final stop on this busy day was the Meteor Crater impact site and museum, located about 35 miles east of Flagstaff, AZ. At this location approx 50,000 years ago, a huge iron-nickle meteorite slammed into the Arizona desert with an explosive force than 20 million tons of TNT. The result of the impact was a huge bowl shaped crater over 4,000 feet across and 700 feet deep. This site was used by NASA during the Apollo missions to train the moon walkers how to cope with the crater filled environment of the moon. On display in the museum was a 3 foot long piece of the meteor, the largest piece ever found. Running his hand over it, Alex remarked how cool it was to touch something that could have come from another galaxy, on the other side of the solar system. This place with one of the trip highlights for both Nik and Alex.

Southwest Road Trip - Day Two

Enjoyed our complimentary breakfast before checking out of the Holiday Inn in Holbrook, AZ. Our first stop was Petrified Forest National Park. I've heard about this park for a long time, but was never sure what it was all about. I knew there would be wood that had turned to stone, but I didn't realize just how much of it there was! As you can see from the picture, there are big tree trunk size pieces all around. We took a cool 1 mile loop hike that walked us through a badlands type setting we lots of petrified wood.
We did two caches in park. The Petrified TeePees cache was a virtual that took us to pyramid shaped rock formations. The Painted Desert cache took us to the Painted Desert which is actually on the north end of Petrified Forest. The Painted Desert boasts the puriest air quaility in all of North America.

Next we headed north for Hubbell Trading Post Nation Monument. The post is the oldest continuously operating trading post on the Navajo Nation. We had a picnic lunch and Alex made friends with a young German Shepard dog that was roaming the park looking for food and attention. Alex named him Hubbell and begged me to let him come home with us....ah...No! We did a quick cache here as well. Hubbell Trading Post 2 for 1 cache allowed me to get credit for a cache and a benchmark. This is the first benchmark I've seen that is not on the ground, but rather on the side of the visitor center.


Our final park of the day was Canyon de Chelly National Monument (pronounced De Shay). This was the highlight of the day for all three of us. We only had time for a short hike to Spider Rock overlook. As you can see of the picture to the right, the views are spectacular. The boys really got sucked in to the serenity and beauty of this place. Canyon de Chelly is known for its shear rock walls, Anasasi cliff dwellings and Petroglyphs. The park is also still a working Navajo community sustained by farming on the canyon floor. There are also truck tours available from the Navajo's that take you down into the canyon and upclose to the dwellings and Petroglyphs. There was one cache in the park called Canyon de Chelly - Spider Rock Overlook. Not much question about what prominant landmark is featured in this virtual. We left the park just before sunset and headed for our next hotel, The Comfort Inn in Gallop, NM.

Southwest Road Trip - Day One

The boys and I began our week long road trip to the scenic southwest today. It was a bit slow getting ready this morning since we have been on the go all weekend at the Long Beach Grand Prix. We did manage to get on the road by 9:00am, with all things considered was not too bad. We took our time on the drive, stoping several times along the way to do some Geocaching. The picture at right is just inside Sunset Crater National Monument. We tried to do a cache there, but the gate closed at 5:00pm, so we where turned away. Some of our more memorable caches we did today include Eight Cribs located in historic Williams, AZ and the Standin' on a corner cache located in Winslow, AZ. The Winslow cache was inspired by the Eagles song Take it Easy. There is a tribute on a corner in downtown Winslow right on historic Route 66 compete with a flatbed Ford truck and a bronze statue of the Eagles Don Henley. We also took advantage of our stop in Winslow to have a delicious Italian dinner at the only resturant open on a Monday night. From there we finished off the drive to our hotel in Holbrook, AZ. We eased our road weary muscles into the hot tub for a nice soak before turning in for the night.

Middle Aged Cat

On Friday March 31st we helped our cat Cookie to celebrate his 35th birthday. Now before you call the Guiness Book of World Records you should know that I've already adjusted for the whole dog year/cat year thing with that age. We have Had Senior Don Gato for 4 years, and he was one year old when he joined our family. We rang in is big day by opening a can of moist cat food, by hand (nothing but love for Donnie G)complete with a flaming birthday candle. He also received a nice little gift bag with a fine asortment of play mice stuffed with Cat Nip. Judging from the fact that he has been running around like a mad kitty for several hours, I'd have to say he likes them! Dad and Bonnie arrived on the same day and were able to help us with Cookies celebration as well. Actually, I think they kind of thought we had lost our minds! Cookie, you are aging well my friend, you don't look a day over 4! We wish you happiness and a frugel use of your existing 8 lives.