A few weeks ago, Michelle said “We need to do something fun for the 4th of July weekend!” Now we aren’t big fireworks people, nor the simple 4th picnic in  a park. Nope, when it comes to us, something fun involves adventure, and yesterday was no different!

Yep, we decided to go Zip Lining..

The MC and I did this years ago down in Eatonville

But Eatonville is HOURS from our neck of the woods.  We wanted something closer, yet with as much fun for the three of us.  Enter Canopy Tours NW.  It’s on Camano island, about a 30 minute drive up I 5 from out house, PERFECT!

Now of course, being the geek that I am, I had to bring the GoPro!

Something about Flying through the trees screamed GoPro to me.

I will start with saying that our two guides Charlie and Dave were great.  From the beginning they made us feel welcome and let us know we would be having fun. Being guides, while talking to us, they were assessing the group.

With our three they learned:

1. The MC had zip lined a course that neither of them had done before
2. Michelle had rock climbed and hiked a lot in the past
3. I had climbed mountains and used ropes and carabiners

In short, we were a bit more experienced with the harnesses and gear we would be using

So much so that Dave looked at us all and said “This is your day off! Do NOT touch or adjust the gear that is our job!” For the entire trip that was our saying! Don’t touch!

This course has 6 zip lines, a draw bridge and an elevator drop at the end.  It takes about 2.5 hours to complete.  To start you all pile into this 50-year-old Mercedes truck from the German army. It was born the same year I was!

Our group above consisted of a mom and her son on the left (he turned 12 the day of the slide) a mom dad and 3 kids on the right, and then us  Ten total.

We headed up to the first platform to get ready to fly.

Charlie was the “Catcher”. He would zip across first to be there to catch us when flew.

As you can see, some of the platforms were pretty high up

But with the safety straps, we had no concerns even when we stood on the edge.

I felt a bit sorry for the MC. He is NOT the best early morning person. For us to eat and get to Canopy Tours in time, it required getting him out of bed at the ungodly hour of 8 AM!

Editor’s Note: Ok for an 18-year-old, 8 AM is ungodly, for the adults in the house at 8 AM, half the day is gone, damn we are burning daylight!

Tired or not, the kid makes zip lining look easy!

We continued along having a blast.  Once again I will point out the owner of this blog is a nut job. If you watch the video at the end of this, you will hear me giggling throughout it. Everything was funny. I was just having so much fun, feeling like a kid, I couldn’t hold it in!

You can hear some of my excitement in this clip. They told us at the end of the run, if you could come in straight on, you could simply run the ramp and stop yourself, major style points! The challenge was thrown, and accepted! The result?  Well you will see!

One of the funniest things involved this tree.

It is the oldest tree on the course, between 200 and 300 years old! They named it Grandpa Doug! Why is this funny? The boys have a Grandpa Doug!  He is not 200 years old, but he is as tough as a tree! I had to share this tree with my mom to let her know it was named after her husband!

From this tree you go to the youngest tree name Dougie Fresh!

We were soon at the longest run, 650 feet, and the fastest run of the day! Even better, there was a camera mid stream to catch us in mid-flight! Once again, the MC had the best style points, but Michelle and I looked great as well.

Do you notice my awesome tuck? Well that makes you go faster, though my normally under used ab muscles are barking at me today! Charlie tells me I was coming in at 33 MPH!!  YEAH baby, I am the wind!

Before the last run, Dave earned his tip by using the old “HEY look at the eagle” trick to help me get a picture of the MC!

The kid was NOT happy!

The last slide took us to a platform with a hole, which let us slowly slide down to the ground.

The two hours went by in a blur, and as you can see we loved it!

This all started with Michelle saying HEY let’s do something fun…

Seeing that smile on her face and having the MC thank me for a great weekend makes it all worth while!

We finished our day at the 282 Pub watching the France/Iceland soccer game and eating good pub food! Who knew the MC liked a chicken a Caesar salad???

If you are interested, in the whole trip, here is complete video.  Its 10 minutes long and I am seriously giggling the whole time, but it was fun!

Folks, if you ever get a chance to zipline, take it! you will NOT regret it! Canopy Tours would be an excellent choice!