Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Love on the High Ropes

For Valentine's Day, I thought it would be fun for us to go to the "Extreme Date Night" at Bridges. We've climbed the wall many times, but never had a chance to do the high ropes course. It sounded super fun to both of us, so off we went.

When we arrived, I wasn't even sure they were open because there were only 3 other couples there. What? Rather than high-tailing it home, we decided to go on in and enjoy the no waiting.

The first order of business was getting harnessed up.

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The photo above was taken after our first challenge, the bars of death. (They had another name for it, but I forget.) It only took about 2 seconds for me to realize I was in over my head.

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The picture above is of people doing much better than we did. By we, I really mean me. I really didn't think I could even get on the first tier. With Warren's help, I eventually made it up to the second one, but that was all I could muster. I sat and watched as he shimmied up several more levels.

It was crazy!

Next we did the wall. Warren easily went to the top and rang the bell. I hovered about ten feet off the ground for a few minutes and then came down. (I have made it to the top once before.)

I'd like to blame it on being sick and/or surrounded by sickies all week, but I just wasn't feeling it. The bars of death had me spooked.

We did have about a twenty minute wait before going to the high ropes course. Watching the others do it calmed me down a lot, because, well, they made it look easy. Warren and I entertained ourselves with the "get to know you" questions provided by the staff.

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When it was our turn to go up the ladder, I decided to go first. I figured that was the only way I would go. Immediately I knew that getting up the ladder was going to be HARD. Hello, total wake up call to my lack of upper body strength.

Here is a really sucky photo of the ladder leading up to the course.

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It felt like it took me an hour to get up, and once there, I held on to the center pole for dear life. About 2 seconds later, Warren came bounding up as though it was the easiest thing he'd done all day. (Considering he is a teacher, maybe it was!)

For our first challenge (everyone got two) we decided to do the balance beam, which you can sort of see in this horrible photo.

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I told Warren to go first this time, and seeing him cross easily did not encourage me like I had hoped. I simply couldn't make myself take the first step. Luckily, Marci, who runs the program, gave me a pep talk and then basically escorted me across. It was just so much scarier than I ever anticipated! Warren helped me back to the center pole and then I was done.

Warren was not. He did the final challenge--which is the hardest--again making it look super easy.

Here's a crappy picture to prove it.

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Look, my hands were shaking and I was sweating bullets--don't expect any good pictures!

I really didn't think I could get down the ladder, and luckily I had the option of just floating down. I have never been so happy to be on the ground!

All in all, it was actually a great night. Even though I wasn't thrilled with my personal performance and the discovery of my unknown fear of heights, it was so amazing to see that guy I married. You know, that super confident guy who seemingly knows how to do everything? I've missed him.

Thank you, Bridges!

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