XPLOR

On Monday we met the bus and headed out for a day at an eco park

You must wear helmets throughout the park…very stylish!

Jeff and I were cringing from our sunburns, but it turned out that XPLOR has a lot of underground activities, cold water, and shade—perfect!

We started out on the amphibious vehicles:

Then we moved on to the hammocks:

You zip over the water and then land in the shallow pool on the other side.  Jeff got a defective hammock his first time out and it got stuck halfway, so he had to jump into the water below and “be rescued”.  Funny stuff.  The boys and I were dying laughing, but were sure he’d be put out by the whole thing.  Not even, he wanted to go again and again.

Next stop:  underground river swimming.  Now, I am not a fan of cold water.  On the bus ride over, the staff person was not making this part sound very fun as he was describing the 56 degree water.  I was shivering just thinking about it.  There was no way that water was 56 though, because I could get right in.

It actually ended up being one of our favorite parts.  Quiet and peaceful.

We also tried it with rafts, but I was glad to get off the raft.  Have I mentioned how uncoordinated I am?  I think Jeff was a good sport having me as a partner.  Also, you kind of have to check your vanity at the door when you’re wearing the helmet and walking around in a bathing suit with unevenly burned skin and not even a touch of mascara.

Here we are, triumphant after coming off the rafts…

Last event:  ziplines.  Jeff confessed to being a bit skittish about this, but the boys couldn’t wait.  You climbed endless stairways to reach the start, zip to the bottom and then climb up another tower and repeat.  Each one in the circuit was a little different, some with water landings and one actually ends on a water slide:

You may wonder, “How did you get all those great pictures?”  Well, my friend, it only takes money.  They have this great system where each of the helmets has a number on it.  They have cameras all over the park and at the end of the day you can give them your helmet numbers and they pull up all of the pictures taken during the day, conveniently placed on a flash drive.  Pretty cool.   They know that once you see the pictures, you won’t be able to leave without having them.  We only got a few pictures in our set of people we really didn’t know.

Some places in the park actually have “viewpoints” where you pose and push a button to take a picture.  We never could get the timing right with this one:

Oh, the funniest part of this day was the bus ride back.  The boys wanted to sit in the back and they ended up sitting near 4 very inebriated Frenchmen who each brought a six-pack on the bus with them (and they discovered the mini fridge in the back so they could keep em cold until needed).  It was amazing to me that one of those guys could chatter (loudly!) non-stop for an hour and a half.  Whatever he was saying must have been hysterical because he kept his buddies laughing the entire time.  Everyone else on the bus was exhausted after the long day, but not them!  Good thing they weren’t driving anywhere.