Monday, July 20, 2009

Well today is adventure day for the King Family. After a nice breakfast of homemade breakfast sandwiches, we head up the road about 5 miles to Mt Mansfield. Our first stop takes us to the Alpine Slides. To ride the Alpine Slides you take a ski lift 2300 feet up the mountain. From there you sit on basically a slide with wheels and go down this track filled with twist and turns. You pick up speed as you come down - BUT your slide is equipped with a brake to help control your speed. Two slides go at the same time - with tracks side by side - so you can race each other down! COOL!
Well after Nick and Mimi do it once - the kids head up for another trip down the mountain.
After that we head over to the next attraction - Bungee Trampolines. Here they attach bungee cords to a harness on your waist. As you begin to jump they tighten the tension in the bungee cords - making you be able to jump to incredible new heights!
Then we head over for the Gondola ride to the summit of Mt Mansfield (GULP) The Gondola is like this enclosed ski lift - and it goes all the way to the summit. After it gets going the view is AMAZING! When we arrived at the summit - we had lunch. Zack was terrified to leave the Gondola building because he thought he was going to fall off the cliff. After a little coaxing I was able to get him outside. And after a little more I managed to get him to look around a little bit - though he was still scared.
The ride back down was again very beautiful.
The kids decided to head back to the Alpine slides for a few more rides.
Then we headed up North to Fairfax, VT - this is where Uncle Henry and Aunt Lisa live (and where Grandma and Grandpa are staying). We had a wonderful supper (the kids only had burgers - but we had scallops, and shrimp - YUM!) The kids had a great time playing with Bear. Bear is a black lab!
Then we headed back home. By the way - travel tip - if you ever head up 108N through Smugglers Notch - be very very careful. The road is very VERY windy, and EXTremelY narrow in spots - I guess the ride home in the dark was my adventure ride for the day!
QUestion of the day - 2 of us got sunburned today - which 2?