Happy birthday to Di, happy birthday to Di, happy birthday to Di-i... It is Di's birthday today!!
No particular tourist activities planned today, just BBQ and cake to celebrate.
Di suggested that Hans does a short hike in the morning as she wanted to feel like a girl and go to the hairdressers (and to shop for tonight's BBQ which the boys are cooking!)
Di dropped Hans off at the trailhead for Sunrise Trail at 9am and Hans then hiked up to Sunrise Peak and then back through a loop to 128th street.
This is the hiking board at the trailhead.
It goes up and up for about 45 minutes as Vineet had said it would. Here we are looking back at the trail just hiked...
Top of the world - Sunrise Peak. Great views over the Phoenix / Scottsdale valley.
Arizona Canal in the distance
The trail on the other side of Sunrise Peak.
Behind the Sunrise Peak that you can see in the picture was this hitching post where you can tie up your horse. Horses were allowed on most of the trails from what Hans could see.
This is Sunrise Peak from another angle, almost at the 128th Street trailhead.
A minor downside of Di's birthday morning - a run in with the law! Yep, she got pulled over by a cop for doing 19 in a 15mph school zone after dropping Hans off. The cop went easy on the dumb tourist who was clearly upset and let Di off with a warning. It's very tough to drive at 15mph in a powerful automatic car. Lesson learned - in School zones put the auto car in LOW gear and crawl.
Di recovered with a coffee and a nice chat with the hairdresser.
Hans finished his walk in just over 2 hours and Di drove him straight to the hairdresser too. His hair was worse than Di's! A wash and good cut scrubbed him up good enough to accompany Di for cake later. See before and after photos below. Much better!
Hans before haircut... And after hike with no shower in between.
Hans after haircut...
After Hans had his haircut, we went literally next door to the Thai House for lunch... Again. Then back to base for Hans to have his shower before we headed off for Di to have dessert cheesecake for her birthday. We found a Cheesecake Factory outlet opposite Scottsdale Quarter and Di was in heaven...
Doesn't she just look pleased here?
Back to base again and Vineet's buddy Baha turns up a little later and we start with social drinks and nibbles in the back yard to watch the sun goes down. Here we all are after a few drinks!
The BBQ was fired up and great steaks cooked with nice red wine to accompany.
Dessert (second for the day for Di) was very good gelato at "That's Amore".
A great birthday for Di with great company. A bit sad to leave Vineet and the "boys" tomorrow but we do look forward to the Big State of Texas and our next adventures.
Posted with Blogsy
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