Every week I typically have a “date night” with Caden where I take him out someplace fun and just spend some quality time together. I started these date nights several years ago and it’s become such a staple of our lives that if we miss it one week, Caden is quite vigilant on reminding me that we need to make it up. I’m glad he looks forward to them so much because I do too.
Saturday I decided we needed to get out of our normal pattern – dinner and movie, mini-golf and dinner, or dinner and rent/buy a movie. Although all fun activities, I needed a fresh take on the weekend (especially after the interesting week I had). So I thought I would take Caden up to Park City and hit the Alpine Slide.
Thankfully, I had remembered to put sweaters in my car before we headed on up. While it was in the high 80’s in the valley, it was chil-ly up in the mountain air in Park City. And considering we would be flying down the hill on the slide, it would only add to the chill factor. When I got up to the counter to purchase our tickets for the slide, I saw they had something called the Alpine Coaster. I asked the girl, “What’s the difference between the Coaster and the Slide?” “The Coaster is much faster than the Slide,” she said. Guess who’s eyes lit up at that remark? Caden started jumping up and down, “I want to go on that!” So I purchased tickets for both the Slide and the Coaster.
We rode up the quad (actually, I think it may fit six people – it’s rather large) chairlift up to the top of the mountain to ride the Slide down. As we walked over to the beginning of the track, Caden looked at me and smiled and said, “Mom, let’s verse each other. I am going to beat you down the mountain!” All I have to say about that is the kid has no fear – he just let loose once we got going and I honestly had to push it to keep up with him. But we ended nearly neck and neck…with him just a little bit ahead. What was funny was as we were flying around on the track, Caden kept looking over to see where I was to make sure he was ahead. He cracks me up…
After our Slide ride was over, we headed over to the Coaster. The first thing I noticed about it that was a “oooh! cool!” factor was the fact you actually ride UP the mountain on your coaster, all strapped in and ready to go. Caden and I got ready to fly up the mountain and we both were giddy as we noticed how twisty and fast the track appeared to be coming back down. It was fun riding up the track to just enjoy the surrounding environment – the leaves are just slightly turning their beautiful fall colors and the crisp mountain air made our cheeks blush.
Soon we were at the top of the track and let me just say that you FLY! You come off the track “pulley” system and suddenly you are in control of how fast or slow you want to go and it’s crazy. We were going so fast around the corners and drops that my eyes were watering uncontrollably. I had to admit that there were a few corners I pulled in the brakes because it made me nervous – the speed at which we were approaching them…whoa. But as soon as we finished the ride, we wanted to do it all over again. It was a riot!! If you have a chance to go up and try it, do it NOW before the snow flies.
The Eyes have it 