This past weekend, The Dad became older. Considering the alternative, we thought a little celebration would be appropriate.
The Dad is one of those men who is impossible to purchase gifts for. He doesn't wear ties, has no use for slippers (although we still purchase those once a year), and we just got him a new wallet for Father's Day.
I am by no means complaining. Him being the type of man he is allows me to have free reign with the tv remote and no need to ever enter the kitchen.
The only time it sucks is when I have to attempt to purchase gifts for the man. Especially now that he can't drink coffee. The new coffee maker every year was a staple. Now? Maybe he'll get socks?
Fortunately, he has no issue with gifting me with a list of useful items for guitars, amps, stuff to repair the aforementioned items, and various other things that are way too intellectual for me to ever understand. He even sends me an email with links to purchase those items.
Easy Peasy right? Except, I'm stubborn. I still want him to have something that when he looks back, shows him how much we think of him. How much we care.
So, I start thinking about things he's interested in. Then my eyes glaze over and I wake up in a pile of drool, only to realize that his birthday is still imminently approaching, and I'm a lame, horrible wife. (You all didn't think this post was actually about his birthday, did you?)
Not knowing what else to do, I started googling for birthday ideas. That we could include the children in. Yeah, those are tougher to come by aren't they?
Days went by and I started imagining stabbing my eyes out with forks. Then, I could legitimately be released from the birthday pressure.
I just felt there had to be an easier way though. I was a tad resistant to poking forks into my eyeballs. They are mighty useful after all. Like when I need some of this.
Yes, I know, this is my husband's birthday post. I'm just taking you through my thought process.
Somehow, in the midst of all that searching, I came across this site. The Devil's Punchbowl. Doesn't that just scream birthday fun? Hiking in the dessert in winter? Not to mention, every Sunday (which just happened to be The Dad's birthday), they offer a tour of the San Andreas Fault Line. To a man obsessed with local disasters, this would be heaven.
Devil's Punchbowl is actually home to not just The San Andreas Fault Line, but two others as well, The Devil's Punchbowl fault line and the Garlock fault line. They all slide different ways when they are active, thus, the varying tilts to the rocks they have pushed up out of the ground. And the colors of the mountains surrounding them.
I'm fairly sure all The Kids saw was the snow on that mountain. We were that close to snow! Nothing else mattered.
I didn't really have a plan for once we got there, other than the fault line tour, luckily, the more than friendly ranger shoved us down the trail for a hike before taking us for the tour.
There were a lot of rocks. All over the place.
Some even looked like benches, so The Kids rested.
Or pretended to be bored. I think my most favorite part of this picture is both The Dad's and my shadows as we take pictures of our bored child.
There was even a river at the bottom of the canyon. I'm sure to most other people, this is simply a creek, or a crick if you're from the south, like my mom. To us, it was a rushing river that had the potential to carry us away. The Boy tripped at one point and actually fell apart because he thought he was going to drown. In two inches of water. It might be time for him to start showering instead of bathing?
Then, we had nowhere to go but up. That up part sucked a little.
We took quite a few rest stops. Like every 10 steps or so. You should never over estimate the power of altitude. Or lazy hikers who spend more time at the computer than hiking. Either way, we finally made it out. I was wondering for a while there. Once I started mentioning mountain lions and black bears, The Kids moved a little faster.
It was totally cool to back to the welcome center and visit with the owls they rescued. This one had me at Whoo. Yes, he did.
Then, we headed out to see the fault line. The Ranger was very engaging and we had an awesome time. I won't bore you with most of the pictures because it looks like the ground. Which, really it is, so no surprise there.
The Ranger took us to where a geologist had dug a trench in the fault line in the '70's.
The little "lip" is The San Andreas Fault. We stood on the fault and it was all my fault. (You were waiting for it, I know you were). The Ranger explained about the different stratas and layers and how you could tell drought dirt from flood dirt, etc.
At this point, The Kids had one thing on their minds. So we thanked The Ranger and headed on up the road a ways.
To play in The Snow. With no appropriate snow gear at all. Hypothermia. It's how we roll.
The Dad thrilled in telling everyone how we had "kidnapped" him. He looks like a victim, doesn't he? It's okay though, we returned him to home in time for work on Monday. Direct Deposit matters.
We drove off into the sunset.
Literally.
Happy Birthday Dad, we are glad to entertain you for another year. Here's to 41 (at least) more!
