Palm Springs Tramway with the Herrs
Today, Steph and I went up the Aerial Tramway in Palm Springs with Ashley and John Herr. For those of you who don't know, Ashley is a friend of mine (Kevin) from Youth Group back at New Covenant in middle and high school. Ashley and her husband were in 'So-Cal' (I'm so hip...using terms like 'So-Cal') for a wedding. I saw on Facebook that they were in Palm Desert, which is only about 45 min. away from us and proceeded to mention this fact and Ashley suggested we do something as they were not on any sort of tight schedule. Very random, and very unexpected, but nonetheless quite enjoyable! (This was the first time in probably 6 or 7 years that we had hung out. Yeah yeah, she was at our wedding, but that totally does not count as 'hanging out'.)
Yeah, it's a pretty crazy climb. Not at all for the feint of heart. At one point half way up the mountain, Jaws came and tried to bite through the cable. John and I had to climb on top of the tram car and wrestle him with our bare hands. Obviously we won. (15 'sweetness' points for anyone who can name that James Bond movie)
The group, with the obvious exception of yours truly. I was doing other things. Wanna guess what? (Hint: it does not involve whizzing off the cliff. I only do that at Joshua Tree)
For some reason, I really like pictures of dead trees silhouetted by the sky.
Pictures really do fail to capture the magnitude of that place. It is BIG and you are VERY high. Up that is. Not the other kind. Unless your a hippie. Darn hippies...
Manirrific climbing of Testosterotude.
An awesome picture of John lovin' him some adrenaline.
Scary huh? Yeah, we almost died.
Awwwwww.
One of the ways I picked up on the fact that Ashley was in Cali was the pictures she posted on Facebook. She had pictures of mountains, big rocks, and dead.
Cracked us up how you could very clearly see where the boundary of Palm Springs vs. Desert was. Can YOU tell? (No 'sweetness' points for this one. Instead, you don't look like a complete idiot. (Dang it. I WANT to say "You don't get 'Handytard points'"...but I'm scared of offending someone. Stupid political correctness has even me scared.)))))) <-- I decided to throw a few extra end parenthesis in for good measure.
And the crazy wind turbine thing along the highway.
A hiker fell down the hill/cliff here. We think he broke both his legs. We stared at him for a bit and then moved on. Just kidding. We actually gave him a granola bar before we left.
John and I had a lot of fun scrambling around on rocks while the girls talked and occasionally followed once we found an easy route for them to follow. There was, however, one time where the girls tackled a nice big rock on their own. Ashley was able to overcome this rock due to some visualization technique which involved picturing herself as a lion or something. There was something about 'rawring'. I was pretty confused, but she got to the top on her own, so whatever works and good for her!
Afterwards we went out to lunch at a VERY German place, and then parted ways...the Lord only knowing how long it will be before our next reunion. But seriously (for once in this post) it was great to see her again and meeting her husband, who proved to be a pretty stand up and all around awesome guy...even if he did steal the bill at the restaurant from me. That was kinda a jerk move, but the rest of the time he was cool (But hey, if you read this: thanks for lunch! But remember "You'll rue the day you crossed paths with me, Trebek!" (Another 15 'sweetness' points to whoever knows where that quote comes from...but don't expect me to believe you...leave a comment!)). <-- An appropriate number of end parenthesis for an appropriate end to this post.
Yeah, it's a pretty crazy climb. Not at all for the feint of heart. At one point half way up the mountain, Jaws came and tried to bite through the cable. John and I had to climb on top of the tram car and wrestle him with our bare hands. Obviously we won. (15 'sweetness' points for anyone who can name that James Bond movie)
The group, with the obvious exception of yours truly. I was doing other things. Wanna guess what? (Hint: it does not involve whizzing off the cliff. I only do that at Joshua Tree)
For some reason, I really like pictures of dead trees silhouetted by the sky.
Pictures really do fail to capture the magnitude of that place. It is BIG and you are VERY high. Up that is. Not the other kind. Unless your a hippie. Darn hippies...
Manirrific climbing of Testosterotude. 
An awesome picture of John lovin' him some adrenaline.
Scary huh? Yeah, we almost died.
Awwwwww.
One of the ways I picked up on the fact that Ashley was in Cali was the pictures she posted on Facebook. She had pictures of mountains, big rocks, and dead.
Cracked us up how you could very clearly see where the boundary of Palm Springs vs. Desert was. Can YOU tell? (No 'sweetness' points for this one. Instead, you don't look like a complete idiot. (Dang it. I WANT to say "You don't get 'Handytard points'"...but I'm scared of offending someone. Stupid political correctness has even me scared.)))))) <-- I decided to throw a few extra end parenthesis in for good measure.
And the crazy wind turbine thing along the highway. 
A hiker fell down the hill/cliff here. We think he broke both his legs. We stared at him for a bit and then moved on. Just kidding. We actually gave him a granola bar before we left.
John and I had a lot of fun scrambling around on rocks while the girls talked and occasionally followed once we found an easy route for them to follow. There was, however, one time where the girls tackled a nice big rock on their own. Ashley was able to overcome this rock due to some visualization technique which involved picturing herself as a lion or something. There was something about 'rawring'. I was pretty confused, but she got to the top on her own, so whatever works and good for her!Afterwards we went out to lunch at a VERY German place, and then parted ways...the Lord only knowing how long it will be before our next reunion. But seriously (for once in this post) it was great to see her again and meeting her husband, who proved to be a pretty stand up and all around awesome guy...even if he did steal the bill at the restaurant from me. That was kinda a jerk move, but the rest of the time he was cool (But hey, if you read this: thanks for lunch! But remember "You'll rue the day you crossed paths with me, Trebek!" (Another 15 'sweetness' points to whoever knows where that quote comes from...but don't expect me to believe you...leave a comment!)). <-- An appropriate number of end parenthesis for an appropriate end to this post.
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