Happy Birthday to my Dad!

In front of Bell Rock early on during our hike. You will notice there is a lower part and an upper part. During our hike we were able to climb up to the first plateau. It was moderately difficult because you had to work from one side to the other finding climbable portions. In fact you also had to watch out for the cactus which added a degree of complexity (and made it so you had to scramble up carefully)

With my dad along Courthouse Butte hike. You can see a large rock up to the left with a rock stack on the top. My dad had climbed to the top of this rock and created a "vortex" (well my dad said the vortex was already there, we just added an exclamation mark with the rock stack).

At the top of Bell rock, which we hiked around for a bit (although you had to move from side to side to find area's that were hikeable/climbable). There were some very impressive views and I imagine it would have been spectacular if the sun was out.

My dad's birthday bouquet from Tristan and I. The "vase" is supposed to be a smiley face mug, which I thought was cute and reusable. Although perhaps it was just a cute smiley vase. It arrived at his place right before he left for a night of activities. I wonder what freebies he will find (I know Hollywood Video's gives a free rental and Denny's used to give a free birthday meal--if anyone knows where to acquire freebies, it is my dad:-)

Last week my dad and I celebrated my dad's 70th birthday early (a 4 day weekend made last weekend a better weekend for me). To celebrate we met up in Arizona and hiked extensively in Sedona.

I took my dad out for an early birthday dinner during our trip. I went all out by treating him to taco del mar for a $3 dinner:-) I was prepared to take him to Yogurtini for dessert and did share my frozen yogurt treat with him.