Wife in the Fast Lane: THE DOWD'S BIRTHDAY'S (BIRTHDOWD'S)

In June and July, I helped celebrate our friends Tom and Liz Dowd's birthdays!

LIZ'S BDAY:

In June, Liz wanted to do a high ropes course in Piancavallo at Rampy Park, so a few of us from the squadron all carpooled up the mountain. We got out of the car, and started walking. Super smart Liz spoke up and said, "this doesn't look right." Fortunately, we walked back to the parking lot where we started and noticed this bright green sign pointing us in the right direction.

(which way?)

Over the hills and through the woods to the high ropes course we go...

Going clockwise from the man standing in front of the green sign we have Tom, Matt, Nick, Heather, Liz, Kathy and Tommy.

I've worn helmets a few times this summer: paragliding, ropes course, biking, zip-lining, wakeboarding... and I've loved every minute of it!

We started out on the beginners level. The last time I did a ropes course was at camp when I was 13. I had been terrified!

A few years later, and I like to think I rocked this ropes course. (well, the beginners level anyway.)

...And then we moved up to the intermediate. I think this was called the spider web.

After taking a quick and delicious lunch break, some of the group continued onto the extreme ropes course levels. (No thanks!) A few girls and I went for a coffee break at a nearby cafe. (yes, please!)

Soooo high!! I think Liz enjoyed her birthday ropes course celebration! I was certainly grateful to put some of my fears to rest on her birthday! :)

Tom's July Bday: For Tom's birthday I was the only lucky one to join the Dowds' in their adventures. We started out driving from Sacile to Cortina. I can definitely say I'd like to go back to this picturesque mountain town. Everywhere you look is a breathtaking view.

Tom and Liz are avid geocachers, so we pulled to the side of the road to find one. The geocache was on top of this rock, so Tom forged ahead to find it.

While taking photos, Liz and I discovered that we could actually go inside the rock!

We couldn't go up to the very top, but there were a few windows along the way that gave us better views. It's so crazy to think that someone built stairs inside a rock out of the rock!

From Cortina, we drove to San Vigilio di Marebbe for some extreme zip-lining adventures! They claim to have the longest zip line in Europe! We were up to 100 meters high, and we dropped 400 meters from the top. It's the steepest in the world!

The three of us were joined by about a dozen other tourists. We all hopped in a few gondolas up to the first zip line...

Luckily, they start you off easy with a short zip line...and then you got to the second one.

They told us we could spin and do whatever we wanted as long as we didn't grab the zip line. I was just focused on not moving ...at all. Haha!

Once I got used to the feeling, I started moving around and spinning like Tom and Liz were doing.

It's hard to beat that view!

On one of the last zip lines the instructor turned us around, and gave us a slight push and walked away. He then quickly turned back around and said, "No, no, wait!" My heart just about leaped out of my chest. He fooled me..and everyone else! He did it to each one of us.

All I could say was, "That was soooo mean," while I was half crying/laughing.

I hope Tom had as much fun as I did! That adventure was really a rush!

Next on our adventure list for Tom's birthday was the pyramidi di terra or land pyramids near Segonzano, Italy.

It was pretty remarkable to see the Austrian influence in Italy.

We kept winding up a very narrow, steep road...and it just kept getting narrower and steeper. But the views were amazing!

We came to a dead end with this little (and smelly) farmer. He was so cute I couldn't resist taking a photo with him.

We turned back around, drove through the farmers vineyard, and came to a trail head for the land pyramids. We all started walking because the trail was hardly big enough for one car. We walked about 200 feet straight up hill, and Tom ran back to get the car. Haha! It was insanely steep. We drove up the tiny dirt road about a mile uphill to the next trail head!

We finally found it! Pryamidi di Terra!

We chose the path less traveled to get some of these shots.

The land pyramids were formed by glaciers.

It was such a beautiful afternoon and there was no one around, so we sang at the top of our lungs any song that came to us! It was so much fun!

Now the trick was getting back down the ~~hillside~~ mountainside. Tom handled it like a boss! We stopped along the way to take a few last photos before the sunset.