Summer Recap: Zorbing, Ziplining, & Exploring
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| Mont Royal park in Montreal |
Of course, settling in to Amherst and getting used to the weather was an adventure, too. We discovered the value of checking the weather channel before going outside because thunderstorms of doom come out of nowhere and flood the area. And, these thunderstorms often come with fantastic lightning shows.
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| Lightning - view from our apartment |
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| Oreo is ready for the rain |
Trip 1: Boston & Zorbing
For our first trip of the summer, we headed to Boston. It was a relatively quick and easy (1.5 hour) trip on the Mass Pike freeway. We met up with Trev's friend David from UCSD Track & Field and he showed us around his workplace at Harvard Medical School. We also explored Boston Common and Copley Square in downtown Boston.
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| Trev & David at Harvard Medical School |
On our way back, we took a detour north to Amesbury to go zorbing and tubing at Amesbury Sports Park. Zorbing is when you sit inside a giant hamster ball filled with water and roll down a hill. Trev did it in New Zealand (see post) and convinced me to try it this time. It was actually pretty fun. We also went downhill tubing, which was a blast.
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| Zorb Champion |
Trip 2: River Tubing
Next, we drove about an hour to the Berkshires, a popular ski resort in Massachusetts. We rented inner tubes and went tubing down the Deerfield river. The river is shallow and has a lot more rapids and rocks than we expected, but it was a fun, relaxing way to spend the afternoon and enjoy nature. We stopped at Shelburne Falls on the way back, which is known for its famous Bridge of Flowers.
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| River Tubing |
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| Bridge of Flowers |
Trip 3: Adventure Ropes Course
We also drove down to Connecticut for a fun outdoor adventure ropes course. The course is self-guided, which means that you have to clip in and out of all of the obstacles on your own as you travel through each of the 5 courses. Each course had long ziplines and fun, challenging obstacles, which required a lot more upper body strength than we expected. My favorite obstacle was skateboarding through the trees. The skateboard was held up by two wires with no support for your hands and about 50 feet off the ground - fun, fun!
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| Adventure Course |
Trip 4: Vermont & Montreal
For our last big trip of the summer, we spent a few days exploring Vermont and Montreal. Driving through Vermont was like driving through a national forest - everywhere we looked there were trees for miles and miles. We ended up getting caught in some scary downpours, which made it hard to see the road, but luckily they only lasted a few minutes. After 4 hours of driving, we made it to Jay Peak Resort, which is near the border of Canada.
Since we arrived late, we were one of the last groups of people to take the resort tram to the top of the mountain before sunset. The view was spectacular. The tram operator showed us where Canada and Lake Champlain were. We climbed some boulders to the very top of the mountain to look down over the ski slopes.
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| Panorama from the top of Jay's Peak |
The resort also had a huge water park inside the main hotel. We went on some rides, survived the lazy river (with rapids!), and I even attempted the Wave Rider, which did not go very well (contrary to popular belief, it is not similar to surfing).
The next day, we drove to Montreal - first stop: baguette! After checking into our hotel, we took the metro downtown and went to the beautiful Notre-Dame Basilica. The stained glass windows were beautiful and it had huge organ pipes looming over the seating area.
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| Notre-Dame Basilica |
We walked more than 30,000 steps in two days, covering most of the city. We went to the Olympic Park, botanical gardens, and old Montreal near the docks. We also climbed 425 steps to the top of Mont Royal park to overlook the city. After an exhausting, but fun few days of exploring we headed back home.
Now, as summer comes to an end, we are moving into our new offices and prepping for the new school year. I'm sure we'll have more adventures to post about soon, so stay tuned...and Go Patriots! ;)
Here are our trip photo albums:
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