Extreme Exercise & Fun with Friends!

by Christine on September 6th, 2010

filed under Christine's Life Updates

What a great, fun weekend I’ve had…again! I am so blessed to be able to do so many fun things and be surrounded by such wonderful friends in real life, as well as online. Thank you all very much for visiting my blog and leaving such sweet comments. I always look forward to checking my email and reading your comments. They give me such happiness and hope that I can do this, this weight-loss journey of mine.

Sunday was our date with the Adirondack Extreme Challenge Ropes Course!  I couldn’t wait to give it a try! We were going to go last year, but I said no because my weight was still too much. I hate(d) that my weight kept me from doing anything that sounded like fun. I don’t have to worry about saying “no” to anything like that, ever again.

On our way we stopped at an apple orchard. There’s an orchard in Schylerville that has my favorite apple of all time, called a Sansa apple. They are an early-season apple, and they had them in stock! We stopped to pick up a big bag of apples, plus a few cider donuts. Oh, autumn is my favorite season! I love orchards, apples, cider donuts, hot apple cider, the smell of burning leaves, the leaves when they change colors. Autumn is almost here! I can’t wait!  (Don’t worry — I had only half a donut and gave all the rest away to our friends at the ropes course!)

Our reservation at the ropes course was at 4 p.m., but we got there at 3 p.m.  We paid (only about $35 per person, what a bargain!) and got our gear and went through the training course.  The ropes course has five courses, and each one gets progressively longer, harder, and higher in the air.  I’m ashamed to say that I only made it through two courses. After that something happened to my brain — I psyched myself out mentally, even though I think I could have done the third course without too much problem. The 4th and 5th courses were undoubtedly hard.  It wouldn’t be so bad when there was a solid board or wire under you feet, but they had swinging logs that you had to LEAP onto, or a tarzan rope that you had to JUMP off onto a cargo net….120 feet in the air. It was pretty freaky stuff, but really fun! What a great workout for your core and arms! (Today my quads hurt, and I can’t for the life of me figure out how my quads got a workout. Go figure.)  It was such a great, FUN way to get a workout in!

I don’t have any photos of me on the course, but Danielle said she snapped a few, and hopefully I can get copies of those soon.

Three of our group (Danielle, Jeff, and teenager Eric) all made it through ALL FIVE courses! Bill stopped after Course 1 because of the heights, and I stopped after 2. I can’t wait to go again next year to tackle that evasive third course!!!

(These photos aren’t mine, but I stole them off the internet. They are of the same course that we did.)

I love extreme sports. I’m not entirely sure why, but I love anything that gets your fear and adrenaline going. White water rafting, sky diving, climbing up sheer cliffs, etc. I love it all! One of my most favorite experiences was climbing to the top of the volcano Mount Fuji in Japan, completely unprepared (1 bottle of water and wearing shorts and sneakers. Der.)  This spring we went white water canoeing and ended up capsizing in the middle of the Hudson River…in April. Just-thawed, 45 degree mountain water. Brrrr! But so much fun!  I probably should have been a storm chaser for a living. I love thrills like that!  Part of my love of extreme thrills stems from a suicidal adolescence (“why not take a risk? The worst that could happen is that you’d die, and what’s so bad about that?”) and partly from a utter need to break other people’s perceptions of me (I was voted “most likely to become a nun” by my high school. Sigh.)  These days I don’t care so much about what people think of me, and I’m certainly not suicidal, but that love of thrills is still there. I could do something thrilling like this every single day.  That’s me…Mrs. Bear Gryllis.  Ha.

After our adventure we had a LATE (9 p.m.) dinner. OH MY GOD we were all starving so much by then!! I ordered ribs, beans, and mashed potatoes. I ate 2 ribs and about one-third of the beans and potato. I DID have a beer, and loved every second of that beer!

Today we met up with friends for breakfast at Denny’s, followed by the attending the last day of the Saratoga Race Track.  At Denny’s I ordered a Make Your Own Grand Slam breakfast (2 eggs, scrambled; 1 english muffin; hash browns; 2 slices bacon. I ate about one-third of the meal).  At the track I had some almonds and a diet pepsi.  My friend Art ended up the big winner! He won a $120 trifecta, followed by a $100 long-shot winner. It was pretty exciting!  Hubby and I ended up losing the $40 we took with us to play with.

When I got home I thoroughly cleaned the garage and did a little yardwork. It felt very productive!! For dinner I had my leftover ribs. Delicious!

What a great weekend! I’m sorry that I have to go back to work tomorrow, but I sure enjoyed every moment of my weekend! These days I really feel like I’m living life to the very fullest. My life certainly isn’t dull, and like I said before, I am so lucky to be surrounded by such wonderful people. I am very grateful.

Related Posts with Thumbnails
Share

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Christine's Life Updates | 6 Comments

  • Bonnie

    I love reading about your adventures.

  • Freckle on the Nose

    I am still thinking about those donuts!!

    Is it chilly where you are? I see you’re wearing a sweater in the track pic.

    Glad you had a great weekend!

  • http://ready4anewme.blogspot.com/ Stephanie

    The ropes course sounds like such an exciting challenge. I know when I’m fit I will totally find one of these course to kick my butt!!
    :o ) Stephanie
    http://ready4anewme.blogspot.com/

  • Patrick

    Wow, that Adirondack Extreme Challenge Ropes Course looks awesome. I want one in our back yard, but I have not heard of any such thing around here. Need to do some web surfing. That place looks like a blast!

    Christine while i must say you look gorgeous taking a bite out of that apple I just couldn’t keep my eyes off the Bel-Air in the background. Need to widen that shot so we can see the rest of that sweet ride you were posing near. Sansa, a good apple indeed. I’ve been feasting on Fuji’s lately here. Apples rule! Since I have an apple shaped body I feel compelled to eat apples.

    That friend Art of yours, seems a lucky charm he is. Hitting the Tri is a good day at the track.

    Glad you had a great weekend; have a great week too :-)

  • Shane G.

    I totally want to try that rope course! I wonder if there is any thing even somewhat similar around my area?

    It looks like you had a great weekend with great friends! I love that you are out living life. I didn’t know you before your weight loss but if you are anything like me, you sidelined yourself for any fun event. You go Christine!!

  • http://www.phoenixrevolution.net Christine

    Patrick! You know, I thought about taking a picture of the Bel-Air, but in the end I didn’t. I should have though, for you! Sorry about that! Next time…next time… We get all kinds of cool cars around here. We have a lot of old car collectors, but there’s (for some reason) a significant number of ferarris around here, too, especially in the summertime during track season. I once even saw this really neat car…what was it? A lotus? A pagani? I forget. It was cool though, and I’m not even a car aficionado.

|