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...

Zipline

Zip, Zip, Zipline!!!!

My friends, Lindy, Doug and I had an awesome time this weekend doing a local zipline - more details to come - I took 96 pictures of our adventure and I think Doug took more than me! We also did the cavern tour - I about chickened out, but Lindy went into 'sistermode' and I made it down the 265 steps to the cavern.

More about my Zipline Trip!

I flew into Vancouver and was met by my bro and family. It was the oddest thing to have it still be light after 10:00 p.m. The next morning we drove north to Whistler - the countryside was absolutely beautiful - I saw the most gigantic waterfall I've ever seen (minus Niagara Falls) and some of the greenest landscape I've seen in ages - just gorgeous!

We had a whole day and a half to meander around Whistler before our big adventure. There was great food, great company, great fresh air and I even got a little (gasp!) Christmas shopping done.

OK, so it was finally time to harness and helmet up and go ZIP! It was so very awesome! I was never afraid for one minute but I certainly thought I would be. The guides attach you to the zipline (it's a metal cable that's only 1" in diameter!) You can see the steps to nowhere in the 'launch pad' picture - you just walk down the steps until you can barely touch one, you lean back and you're 'zippin'. We were hundreds of feet above the ground with a huge raging river below us...we were done all too soon. Now, I'm searching for my next adventure...hmmmm...what will it be?

On the way to the Zipline drop off point, our guide pointed out that what we were driving by was Curve 16 of the bobsled run for the 2010 Olympics - that will be so neat to watch the Olympics on TV and know that I was RIGHT THERE.

Back into civilization, we took an afternoon trip on the ferry over to downtown Vancouver where the Expo was held a few years ago - I had been to the Expo and it was odd to see the white sailed building still there at the waterfront.

The vacation ended by attending my sister-in-laws family reunion (when I heard there was a Zipline where they were going, I invited myself along!). It was so fun to see how other families celebrate - there was a game about Canada's history - since the rest of the family was from the US we had to really tax our brain to figure out the answers (and some we didn't know at all!). The prizes were Canadian items.
What a great trip!

Zipline Trip!
I just have to get caught up with some work projects, but I HAD to show you pictures from my trip to Canada to do the Zipline!!!

More about the trip soooooon!