“Boxing Day is a holiday traditionally celebrated the day following Christmas Day, when servants and tradesmen would receive gifts, known as a “Christmas box”, from their bosses or employers,[1] in the United Kingdom, Barbados, Canada, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, Kenya, South Africa, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica and other former British colonies. Today, Boxing Day is the bank holiday that generally takes place on 26 December.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boxing_Day
I somehow knew Boxing Day was vaguely British; but never really knew it wasn’t some sort of holiday the day after Christmas celebrating prize-fighting. Ends up it has nothing to with pugilistic sport.
I usually hike and walk the day after Christmas, and this year was no different. I started out the morning hiking up to Hole-in-the-Rock in Papago Park here in Phoenix. Click to embiggen.
Hole-in-the-Rock
Papago park is north and a bit east of the airport. It’s pubic park with the sort of landscape I suppose one would have found in the Phoenix area before there was Phoenix in this area – the Phoenix zoo and Phoenix Botanical Gardens are within the bounds of the park. Hole-in-the-Rock is a big attraction too – you can hike around the back of the rock as shown in the photo here and then peer out the hole in the rock, down towards Phoenix.
Peering through the Hole-in-the-Rock
It’s usually a zoo at Hole-in-the-Rock – tons of little kids – it’s a big kid attraction – kids yelling, running all over, acting like kids, mothers braying like donkeys at the kids, acting like mothers; so once I had experienced it after moving here; I only felt like experiencing it once. But today, it was utterly abandoned – there was no one there. So I hung out and took a few shots.
Nobody at Papago Park
Oh, the red mini van? Just some guy minding his own business having a cigarette. Oh. It’s illegal within park bounds to smoke unless you are inside your vehicle. I did not perform a citizen’s arrest – spirit of the season and all!
Yet Another Shot of Phoenix
After Papago Park I chilled out for a couple of hours and then headed out east out past the Superstitions and on to Picket Post Mountain for some desert hiking.
Picket Post Mountain
Picketpost Mountain is located just outside the town of Superior, Arizona approximately 40 miles (64 km) east of the Phoenix Metro Area. The mountain is located in the southern desert region of Tonto National Forest and is popular with hikers. The mountain’s unusual name stems from an early military camp founded at the base of the mountain by General George Stoneman in 1870. The soldiers nicknamed the mountain “Picket Post” due to its usage as a sentinel point to guard their camp from attacks. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picketpost_Mountain
It was a perfect afternoon for hiking and there were just a few others on the mountain that afternoon. I only made it up about a third or so of the way as I started later in the day and was just to lazy to claw my way to the top. Here are some more shots:
Another shot
Look Behind You!
On the way home, I checked out a restaurant I had heard of on the backside of the Supersitiions:
Cool Neiborhood on the Backside of the Supersitions
I had a pasta dish (it was excellent) and a couple of beers.
Oh, and apropos of nothing, here are a couple of shots of a nicely redone ’53 Rambler Convertible one of my homeboys did:
Front View
Rear View
Cheers!
Alan Olee Book Report 