Saturday in the Mountains

What a fabulous day!!!

Let's see - we packed so much into one day in the mountains it's hard to remember everything - it was incredible. That's me behind the wheel of Lindy and Doug's convertible and yes, that's snow behind me.

We stopped by a stream to check it out and crawl around on downed trees.

The weather was FANTASTIC, the air clear and the company was so much fun!












Here's Lindy and me getting ready to do the zipline at the Moaning Caverns. More on those caverns in a minute!

You approach the zipline by crossing a 60-foot long sky bridge before being strapped into a full-body climbing harness and then rigged to the cable. The zipline is 1500-feet long and you go in excess of 40 miles per hour across the 1/4 mile line. No experience necessary, all you need is the courage to step off the platform.





Here's Lindy and me hoofing it up the stairs in the cavern. Thank goodness we've been exercising at lunch.
The walking tour descends 234 steps to a depth of 165 feet below the ground through marble passages into the cavern. The tour ends on the spot were scientific excavations revealed the bones of prehistoric people who had fallen into the cavern thousands of years ago.







Me 'rock' climbing - shhhh, Lindy - don't let out my secret!

Me on the stairs in the cavern.

Lindy and Doug!!!














Mark Twain's Cabin - it seems a whole lot simple and oh, so SMALL!


























This wasn't all of our exciting day - we went into Calaveras Big Trees, picked up ginormous pinecones, had the most awesome burger at the Snowshoe Brewery in Arnold - I even tasted Apricot Beer. Shopped a little in Jamestown on the way up and just enjoyed our way meandering through beautiful country.

The planning for the day actually started several days before this...and there was plenty of deception!!! Doug's birthday is coming up and Lindy wanted to surprise him with something special - I'd mentioned the zipline and Doug wants to bungie jump, so the planning began. There were phone calls, there were grocery shopping trips, there were plenty of giggles.

The night before our big adventure, we set the plan into motion and it was quite the plan. Per my instructions, I called Lindy the night before to plant the seed for Doug. I told her about this gigantic sale at a plant nursery. Doug and Lindy are redoing their yard and Lindy knew this huge sale would get Doug excited. When I made the phone call I was in the middle of a store - it was so hilarious! Lindy played it to the hilt!

We're already planning our next adventure - something about Circus Trees...