Today was my Anniversary! 8 years married to my Perfect Match! He took the day off work, which was GREAT because we never get a day off together. My wonderful neighbor agreed to watch our son for us (the girls were in school), so we planned out a bit of an adventure for the day! With a sunny spring day here in AZ, we decided to go out GeoCaching.... a favorite hobby of ours but something we haven't done together in a long time.
If you don't know what GeoCaching is, it's like treasure hunting. People go out and hide things and log the longitude/latitude coordinates at the GeoCaching website. You plug the coordinates into your GPS and go out hunting for the hidden cache! Sometimes it's just a small tube with paper in it and you sign it to log that you found it. Sometimes it's a container with small trinkets and the general idea is, take a trinket, leave a trinket. It's not about what you get, it's about the adventure of finding these cleverly hidden containers. So anyways, Hubby got online and found the coordinates for 3 hidden Caches out near Estrella Mountain, which is not far from us but we've never been out there. We dropped the kid off next door, bought some water bottles, and hit the road!
Our first Cache was found in the parking lot at the ballpark where the Dodgers are having their Spring Training.... about a 20 minute drive from our house. No one was out there but I'm sure the security guard was wondering what we were doing out there overturning rocks at the edge of the parking lot. Eventually hubby overturned the right rock, which was hollowed out on the bottom with a plastic tube stuck inside. He took out the paper and signed it and then we put it back and got back on the road. Let the adventure continue!
Another hiker took a picture for us. I think we needed at least one "happy couple" picture for our anniversary!
"Welcome to the Star Tower, your place in the Cosmos. For Thousands of years man has looked to the heavens with mystery and awe. The Tower To The Sky is a living memorial to the many Native American cultures that have studied the sky from this very location; The Desert Southwest.
The Tower To The Sky depicts the story of the Milky Way Galaxy and your place in it. The tower is set in a spiral configuration very similar to that of the shape of the Milky Way and it’s many spiral arms. The form and function of this tower is also reminiscent of the natural spiral found in the Nautilus Seashell. In the world of Mathematics this is known as The Fibonacci Number Sequence. Consequently, we see this spiral from the smallest of creatures, up to the largest of galactic systems!
The Star Tower depicts the evolution of our galaxy and helps you understand your place within it. At the observation plaza you can reflect on your place in the universe and observe nature from this sacred ground of our ancestors, where we reach up and out to the skies."
Steven Kates, “Dr. Sky”
How exiting! I love Astronomy, Nature, and Native American culture! What a wonderful adventure this is turning out to be!
On the side of the tower, another inscription;
“Nature offers no greater splendor than the starry sky on a clear, dark night. Silent and jeweled with the constellations of ancient myth and legend, the night sky has inspired wonder throughout the ages.
A wonder that leads our imaginations far from the confines of Earth and the pace of the present day and out into the distant reaches of space and cosmic time itself.
Astronomy, born in response to that wonder, is built on two of the most basic traits of human nature: The need to explore and the need to understand.
Through the interplay of curiosity, discovery, and analysis – the keys to exploration and understanding – people have sought answers to questions about the universe since the earliest times.
Astronomy is the oldest of all the sciences, yet never has it been more exciting than it is today."
~ Chaisson, Astronomy Today
Okay, I LOVE this place! We've got to come back with the kids sometime!
At the top of the tower, a sunburst design. Me, contemplating my place in the Universe. I think I'm EXACTLY where I'm supposed to be!
Eventually we move on. Our next cache is about 4 miles up the road. After searching for a place to park we end up about .75 miles from the cache... time for a hike! Following the compass directions on the GPS we head off into the desert....
And of course, once we drive back home, it's time for lunch! We stop at Claim Jumpers and I am having this delicious Bloody Mary! A wonderful meal, followed by a trip to the bookstore... we eventually make it back home around 2 pm.
I have really enjoyed my day, had a new recipe to try out for dinner, found some new places and got to spend some time in nature! But most importantly, hubby and I had some wonderful quality time together to celebrate our first 8 years together!
