#2 Birthday Morning Hike

I'm a member of meetup.com. It's the most amazing social networking tool for those who want to be active and aren't afraid to meet new people. I've joined about six hiking groups, and can hike any day of the week with all the events that are scheduled. I hike about 3 times each week, sometimes with a meetup, and sometimes by myself.

The meetup hikers are amazing people. I've found them to be genuine, healthy, and compassionate about life. I like being with them, and I meet new friends with every event.

This morning was a hike called, "Lookout Mountain: Celebrate Teresa's Birthday." Vic, the leader of Fleet Hikers, posted it months ago.
http://www.meetup.com/Fleet-Hikers-30s-to-40s/events/91463392/

What a beautiful morning! It never rains in Phoenix, but it's been raining for the last day. It was predicted to be raining for this hike, but there was a 2 hour reprieve, just the time needed for us to get around and up and down Lookout Mountain. Beautiful, and the desert smells oh so nice when it's wet.

Then all of us (plus a few extras, like IDA, who went running instead), went to Moon Valley Grille for breakfast. We filled the place and had the waitresses hopping. Nate even rode down on his bike, in the rain. I'm pretty sure that was about his mom buying him breakfast, not about getting to know some new friends! Oh well, I loved that he came. (and he DID get to know some new friends!)

Nate especially loved chatting with Eric (who is black, and according to Nate, is "prejudice" because he made a joke about the color of his skin being a problem during a flash photo. He liked that Eric is real. It's nice to have healthy friends who are role models to my kids... well, except for the part where Eric was teaching Nate the ropes of how to get a motorcycle license at age 15, one year prior to being able to drive a car. Nate was all grins about some of the inside info Eric shared. Oh boy!