The inevitable family photo and a sky-high adenture

It’s inevitable at every reunion, so bear with me--the family photograph, and I’m proud to show off my gang. In our family, Lisa, Colin’s wife, is the photographer. She studied photography as part of her undergraduate education and was a professional photographer for a while, even taking underwater photographs when they lived in Turks & Caicos.

Today, she found the perfect spot outside a funky little restaurant where we had an excellent lunch. She lined us all up on railroad ties—you’ll notice the matriarch got a chair from the café’s front porch—sighted the picture and ordered us around, and then asked the café owner to take it. He did a good job—everyone looks pretty happy.

I want to say a word about ziplining too. I knew when they all went off on their adventure yesterday it wasn’t something I wanted to do, but I didn’t realize the extent. If you don’t already know, those who are brave enough are taken up to the top of the mountain on the ski lift. Getting signed up, outfitted, and provided with protective gear takes a long time. Then you stand on the top of the mountain for a long time—and it was windy and cold yesterday.

And then the moment—strapped into some sort of chair attached to what looks a thin cable, you fly down the mountain at a speed of 65-70 mph. The trip down takes one minute, after all that preparation. That’s it! One session includes three trips.

I guarantee this is something that I will never do. For pity’s sake, I get nervous on a second-floor balcony! Someone told me this is 22 stories above the ground. Those two dots you see in the picture below are members of my dearly beloved family, but I can’t tell you who. If I’d been there, I’d have been wringing my hands and praying.