I'm going to be honest. Ben and I both had terrible birthdays this year. But fortunately we had a treetop adventure planned. We weighed the idea of doing a canopy tour in Charlotte a year ago for our anniversary but we thought it was too long of a drive for a 2-3 hour experience. So when we recently found out that a similar place was just built and opened a few months ago in Raleigh, we knew we wanted to try it out. We went to Go Ape! just 10 minutes from my parents' house. We dropped the kiddos off with Nanni and Papa and went on our way.
When you begin they fit harnesses to you with your carabiners and pulley. They were great at giving instruction and even had a small practice course so that they could make sure you were attaching everything correctly to the cables so you wouldn't fall to your death 30 feet up in the air. :) Just kidding. Except, actually, I guess that is how it would be.
There were certain pathways that let you choose easy or extreme. At the beginning, Ben and I were thinking, "Go extreme or go home," until, naturally, we came to a course where it was basically loose ropes with metal rings that you had to somehow get your feet into without doing splits. Ben went for it and it took him about 5 minutes to get across a 10 foot obstacle. After that he was exhausted. I felt justified going the easy way afterward because I actually enjoyed the rest of the course and didn't get tired. Poor Hubs.
Below this twisted course you can see the 4th zipline landing zone.
This tarzan swing was our favorite part of the course. They let you free fall for about 10 feet before the harness catches you and swings you to the net. Ben and I debated going backwards on the course and doing it again... but we were pretty sure it was against the rules to go backwards....
There were 5 sections of the course. Each one starts with you climbing a rope ladder up a tree and ends with you descending via zipline. This was one of them.
We are so glad we chose to do something a little different this year for our birthdays. It was so fun. We went early enough in the morning that we missed the worst heat and we worked in a small group of only 6 people. We had a blast together! When we went back to my parents' I took a much needed nap and they threw us a little luau. When my mom saw the pictures of how much fun we had she asked, "This didn't make you want to go skydiving like you used to, did it?" And I have to admit that I've been researching prices online.... maybe next year?
1 comment:
That looks like a blast!! It reminded me to some degree, Benjamin, of the rope course we did as a family at Ricks College many years ago. Glad you two had such a great day!
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