Zakopane

We waited until my sister Laura and her boyfriend Adam arrived to visit Zakopane, a town in the Tatra Mountains in Poland. While we never got to ski here, all 6 of us enjoyed the picturesque town and the beautiful mountain views. Luckily, we also enjoyed the funicular railway going up the mountain. At the top we found a great restaurant where we ate some tasty Polish food and a few in the group drank Żywiec.











At the top of the mountain, we found more to do than just eat and drink. First we took advantage of the Alpine Slide. Alpine slides have tracks that look like a bobsled run, but instead of having snow or ice as a base, you'll have metal or concrete. You sit on a sled that has a brake operated by a lever in the middle. The curves on the track are banked so as you whiz downhill and turn, your sled will ride up the embankment, but you won't go over the edge...at least I haven't seen that yet. We went without brakes until the landing runway and no one flew over the edge. We all had a great time and the short lines allowed us to all ride multiple times. A tow rope for the slides would bring the sled (with rider on it) back to the top where we could get ready for the next ride.

We also found a great ropes course. Laura, Adam and Brody decided to do the straight high line where they actually got to switch lines on a tall pole before continuing on to the ground. Check out Brody zipping in to the top of the pole.


I know in the picture below Brody, Laura looks like she has taken up a new career making repairs on tlelphone poles, but in fact she's just switching zip lines to finish her run.

Ariana chose the ropes obstacle course where she got to scooter across a few rope lines. She also got to swing across on a rope, climb through rope mesh and zip down her own zipline.

After a great time on top of the mountain, we decided we should head back down. Laura, Adam and Ariana decided to take the train back down. Brody, Corey and I decided to walk down. As we started down the trail, Brody decided we should try to beat the others to the bottom. At the beginning this meant a quick hike down a rocky trail. We stopped at the middle to take the picture at the top of this post with Corey and Brody. After taking pictures, we started down the trail again, this time at a faster pace. Brody encouraged us on...faster Mom, faster Mom. I started running down the hill with gravity urging me on more than Brody. At the bottom I proudly turned to Brody and realized that he wasn't there. When I looked up the hill I saw Brody and Corey casually walking down. I was proud of my run despite being abandoned by my fellow runner. Unfortunately, the muscles on the side of my thighs were veeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeery sore for the next several days.