A Weekend In The Trees and On The Range

The weekend got better starting Saturday night.

We had Havdalah in the Trees with members of our synagogue at the Adventure Park.
We started out with a group of 35 parents and kids gearing up after dark to tackle the courses. It was cold out but we rapidly warmed up making our way through, over and under the obstacles.

Making your way as a family through an obstacle course that is dimly lit and when you can't even see the ground most of the time is a very different feeling than tackling the same course by day. Zip-lining across nothingness in the dark is very cool indeed.

We ended with a small service to celebrate the end of Shabbat and went home exhausted from the courses that we did.

Then today I took the kids with Manuel and his kids to the range this evening and we had a blast even in the cool weather.

I had the P30 out and 100 rounds later there are no malfunctions of any kind to report. Manuel liked shooting it as well, and it knocked down steal plates with aplomb. That's 550 rounds with no issues.

The kids shot the M&P 15-22 and knocked down plates with it quite nicely. Leah also shot the Ruger MKII and Abby tried out Manuels GSG .22LR Uzi, which is very heavy for a .22 - no recoil but it was not comfortable for her due to its weight.   She stuck with the M&P 15-22.

Manuel had also brought along a pretty cool new toy.

Yes, that's his Tavor, but it's now sporting a silencer and a 9mm conversion kit. It uses UZI mags and functions flawlessly.  The silencer makes it very pleasant to shoot and it's much, much quieter than the H&K P30 with the same ammo and with no flash.  While not silent, You could easily shoot it without ear protection without any discomfort.

The 9mm conversion kit is a very slick bit of kit, and shooting it with the silencer is simply awesome. It was problem-free for a good 300 rounds this evening. Shooting down racks of plates was effortless, even when they kept reappearing with the child-operated semi-automatic plate reloading system then in use.

I needs to get me one of these.

Since dusk was fast approaching, we shut down, cleaned up and headed off. We headed off to dine on some pizza and that was the end of a great day and a pretty darn good weekend.

Sunday Up In The Trees

On Sunday we woke, had breakfast and then headed out on our next adventure - At the Adventure Park.

After filing out waivers for this year we geared up and headed into the trees.

First I went with Abby on a green course and she absolutely tore it up with skill and confidence and more guts than the teenagers that were just ahead of us. The teens were freaking out and Abby was quite unimpressed that they couldn't hack it and kept freezing at obstacles.

While the obstacles on the green course were challenging, there was no stopping her.

Abby worked through each obstacle with skill and aplomb and launched herself off the zip-line at the end of the course:

Next, Natasha took Abby and I paired up with Leah and her friend Emmy and we did a yellow and a pink course.

 Leah also had no issue with leaping into space on a zip line, and she added a turn for style while doing so:

Interestingly enough, the easier pink course was actually harder than the higher rated yellow course.

 The obstacles were more challenging. They were harder to maneuver on, and with it being kid-sized I had to squat and crawl through a few of the obstacles.

Leah didn't like this chain obstacle as each chain was spaced pretty far apart for her, and they would swing around out of her reach, but she did it anyways,

We made it and then Abby took Leah on a yellow while Natasha and I did a Blue course.

The Blue course was a complete butt-kicker.

 It wasn't just that it was a lot higher than the other courses.
 It wasn't just that each obstacle was longer than on the prior courses.
 It wasn't just that this course demanded both balance and upper body strength to spare with some very tricky obstacles that waved around like a ship at sea.
 It also wasn't just that the ending obstacle was literally a leap of faith - you jumped off the platform 30 feet in the air with nothing below you, secured only by a descending strap contraption that slowed your descent down to a safe speed.

It was all those things put together, and they made it quite the challenge indeed.  Quite a few of the people on the course with us stated it was harder than the black diamond courses, and a few had to be rescued off the course by the staff, but we completed it. 

The long zip line on the blue course was awesome - the longest one in the park made for a rush of a ride. Stepping off into thin air at the end was cool indeed - I'd do that one again. 

It was a heckuva good workout and just about every muscle is nice and sore, and I've got serious bruises on the inside of my arms from brushing against the cables and muscling my way through the obstacles, but it's all good.

The family had a great time and we used every minute of our allotted time on the courses. Next time, some Black Diamonds await for the adults to conquer.

Now That Was A Fun Way To Spend A Saturday

Just back from taking the kids to The Adventure Park in West Bloomfield.

Best way to describe it - think challenging aerial obstacle courses and zip-lining. Did I mention it's all up in the air?

Take a look at their promo video:

If you had a fear of heights, this course helped you get over it. If you needed a workout, this park gave you one, in spades.

Lots of upper body work was involved, lots of balance work, lower body strength, and plenty of gut-checks.

Since you can't show any reluctance or fear in front of the kids, you go and get on the obstacles, no matter what. So I did.

Now I'm all sorts of sore along with the bruises to prove a good time was had. A beer or two is definitely in order

One problem was that Leah could only go on the Purple, Yellow and Green trails, and on the Green only with an adult. The Purple one is more designed for kids so fitting my 5"8 frame through some of the obstacles was interesting at times. Again, lots of interesting muscle soreness is developing from that.

I took Leah on both purples, both yellows (twice each) and one green, and the green required adult accompaniment due to her age, and in a couple spots a little help was needed for her to reach some areas. Otherwise, once should got the hanging of Tweezing (watch the video to understand), she ran the courses like a boss.

By the time we got to the Green course, it was very backed up, mainly due to a lot of people freezing up at the zip-line and causing a backlog all the way to the start. This simply disgusted Leah as she showed no fear whatsoever and suggested those people go to the purple courses so they could find some more their speed. She couldn't believe adults were both punking out and holding up the line while doing so. The Green course was also starting to get a little tall for her with some of the obstacle becoming a little hard for her to reach, and the amount of waiting on them was getting ridiculous, so we did just one and went back to the yellow courses.

Abby and Tash paired up and did the purple, yellow and green ones. Abby then came to me and Leah and Tash did a blue one while I we were on the green course with Leah and Abby so I unfortunately missed it. So we'll see if Murph is up for it when he comes to town sometime as there's some blue courses waiting to be done.

To say it was an awesome time is an understatement. The zip-lining high in the air was way cool, the obstacles where you felt like you would fall off at any minute were great for building confidence and faith in yourself and your capabilities. The kids ate it up and now know they can do things they never would have thought they could do before getting up and stepping out into the air.