Zip!

Sacha's birthday present to me was an experience - an afternoon of zip-lining and obstacle-navigating at an adventure park about an hour away.  It's called Tree to Tree Adventure Park, in case you're interested in checking it out.  Thanks to Apa's willingness to watch the kids for the afternoon and evening, we went out on Sunday to spend the afternoon there.  We had SUCH a good time.  The park is set up with various different levels of difficulty, kind of like a ski course, from the blue circle to the double black diamond.  In each course, you have to navigate a series of obstacles interspersed with zip lines from tree to tree.  Once you complete one level, you're allowed to go on to the next.

You start out with a little course that's close to the ground so they can make sure you understand the safety rules, and then they let you loose into the park.  Sacha and I figured we'd just go for as long as we were having fun and not get all competitive about it.  We had a great time.  We spent the majority of the time together, going one after the other through the courses.  We had to balance on swaying balance beams, climb rock-climbing walls that were suspended over thin air, crawl through a tunnel, and about a million other things, all of which were up high in the air! 

We then got to a point where you had to accomplish a tough vertical climb in order to qualify to do the black and double black courses.  We weren't sure if we could do it, but decided to give it a try.  It involved a swaying wooden ladder that led to a ladder of tires and then a rock-climbing wall above that.  It was really hard!  I was thankful that I spend time every day lifting weights, or I never would have made it.  Once I got to the top, Sacha gave it a try and decided it wasn't for her.  So, we did the next level, the red level, together instead, and then I did the black course on my own. 

All of the courses were difficult, but the black one was really tough!  After doing it, I could see why they made us do the qualifying climb first, because it required a lot of upper body strength...and it was WAY high up!  Every obstacle was very challenging and I just went through them slowly, because I had to concentrate on every step.  Finally, at the end, there was a choice between zipping to the finish or doing the double black diamond triangle of obstacles, which I couldn't resist trying. 

The double black triangle had three parts - navigating through hanging swings like you might find on a playground, walking over a tightrope that had random pieces of wood interspersed, and then doing the monkey bars to the finish.  I made it through the first two parts, but on the monkey bars, the second one just slipped through my hands and I slid the rest of the way to the tree on my little safety cable.  Then I zipped to the ground!  It was one of those moments that I think I'll always remember, because I was so proud of myself for giving it my all and having a great time doing it!  And, I was so proud of Sacha, too, for pushing herself and having fun and arranging it all to start with!  We will definitely be going back, although it might not be for awhile.  It's been three days now and I'm STILL sore!