Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah

Hoped to wake to sunny skies, but unfortunately that simply wasn't the case. Instead, it was cloudy and appeared to have recently rained. It was near 715am when I slipped out of bed and into my running clothes. Noticed that Jacob had taken refuge in the bathtub. I assumed my snoring the culprit. I left the room no more than ten minutes later stopping first at the Inn lobby for a cup of Starbucks coffee.

There were a few families already gathered there for the free continental breakfast. I stood near the empty lobby bar watching the weather channel on the TV. More rain forecasted for the area, with most of the rain hitting mid morning. Not expecting clear, sunny weather until Thursday. Ugh!

Did my run into the town of Ellicottville passing by EBC as well as several other establishments. Stopped briefly at EBC checking out their new addition and patio, which was opened even at 730am. Very nice! Was much looking forward to having dinner there later. Finished my run heading back to the Inn. Stopped in the lobby again for more coffee and a muffin. Spent about 5 minutes before pouring Mindy a cup of Starbucks and heading back to our room.
By then it was raining just as the weather channel had predicted.

Soon Mindy was up. Our plan was to have breakfast at the Inn ahead of our 1pm High Adventure Park experience. Weren't really sure what we would do leading up to 1pm. It was just me, Mindy & Bella at breakfast. Jacob wanted to stay back in the room. Bella promised to bring him back some goodies.

The three of us carbed it up, enjoying giant waffles smothered in syrup, muffins, and bagels lathered in cream cheese. Of course Mindy and I enjoyed more coffee and juice too. While we were in the lobby having breakfast it poured rain outside. Once we were done eating, Mindy headed to the lobby desk to redeem our two free Adventure Park vouchers and purchase two more at a discounted rate. At the same time, Bella and I headed back to the room. Over the next 1.5 hours, we all got showers, and by then the rain had finally stopped. It was still cloudy but thankfully the sky brightened some.

We decided to head to the Tannenbaum lodge around 11am to scope of the Adventure Park setting. It's just a little over a mile up HV road. Jacob was grumbling again, not really eager to follow our lead and check out the Adventure Park process. In fact, he was speaking quite rudely to Mindy, something he does frequently when he's tired, hungry, and/or in unfamiliar surroundings. He was really pushing the limits when the staffers invited us to walk out and check out the course by following the mulched trail. He even tried sucking Bella into his misery. We largely ignored his rude comments.

After checking out a little bit of the park we headed into the Tannenbaum lodge to use the restroom and then checkout the cafeteria. Mindy was eager to get some real food in Jacob. After a couple slices of pizza he was much more pleasant. Around noon, Mindy headed into the main ticket office of the Adventure Park to buy bug spray. At the same time, the staff invited us to start an hour or so early since they weren't very busy.

Just as we were being outfitted for our harnesses a few peaks of sunshine poked through the otherwise cloudy veil, and then a few minutes later there were blue skies above the area. Hoorah! Much like ski slopes, the 11 courses were labeled by color (yellow, green, blue, black, double-black) to indicate their difficulty.

Having no experience to draw from, we opted to begin on a green. That turned out being a good choice. The course was challenging enough as well as an opportunity to familiarize ourselves with the operation of the harness, safety strap, and zip line handle. Bella and I were paired while Mindy and Jacob took another green trail. Bella did great despite her 52-53" inch height, which made it harder to cross or climb many of the ladders/bridges.

We met up with Mindy & Jacob and then did a blue course next. In hindsight, we probably should've done another green. Not only was the blue up higher in the trees, but the bridges/ladders were longer and more difficult. Even the spacing between the 'steps' were wider making it extremely challenging for Bella's small frame. A couple of times she had to have Mindy's assistance. I wasn't happy that Jacob was giving her a hard way to go, which only served to frustrate her even more. In the end, she did great.

Realizing it was far better to separate the two kids, Bella and I once again paired off for our third course, which was another green. With just 10 minutes or so left on our passes (3 hour pass), Bella and I opted to finish on Grand Rapids, an all zip line course. That proved daunting but fun! I heard one of the guides tell a father son combo going just in front of us that it made more sense for the father to go first so that he might be able to catch his young son at the end of each zip line. We followed those same instructions and I am glad we did. In fact, on one occasion, Bella's chest slammed into the receiving tree trunk fairly hard.

We finished just ahead of Mindy & Jacob. Took us a few minutes to find them. We left Adventure Park more than satisfied with the challenge. I give it a big thumbs up, and well almost certainly come back to do it again. Next, we rode the mountain coaster, which was my first time and also included with the passes we purchased. Mindy & Bella have rode it a few times during our winter visits. Not sure about Jacob. It was more fun than it looks.

It was about 430pm by the time we got back to our room. With little fanfare we changed into swimming attire and headed to the pool. Jacob stayed in the room with instructions to be showered and ready for dinner by the time we were back. The sun was out in full force for the first time in several days. Felt good to soak up its rays. Aside from an older woman reading poolside, we were its only visitors. Bella & I swam in the outdoor pool while Mindy relaxed poolside. She eventually got in too. Mindy & I got in the hot tub briefly, too. We probably spent about 40 minutes in total at the pool.

Back in the room we quickly showered and left for dinner at EBC. Curious from my many Ellicottville runs, we stopped briefly to walk about the Ellicottville cemetery on Jefferson St. Jacob stayed in the car. me, Mindy &Bella walked pretty much the entire cemetery. We found tombstones commemorating folks that were born even before Washington served as our first official US president. Several war of 1812 casualties buried there too. Very interesting.

Given that it was a Monday, we didn't expect there to be too much trouble finding a parking spot. We found one right out front of the new section of EBC. More to come ...

T