Day 16 - Olympic Park!!!

Today was a great day!!! We drove from Salt Lake City to Park City where the 2002 Olympics were held. This park is used today for athletes to train on different winter sports. We arrived around noon with a little rain...all rides shut down, but they predicted they would open the bobsled up at 1. So during our hour wait, we watched some guys ski down the practice slope into a pool! The would do crazy flips off the slopes and into the water...it was very cool - we got some great videos of this I will post later.

At 1:00, we were one of the first in line to ride the bobsled. We knew this ride had g-forces, but I think we both underestimated just how many it had!! This is a real track they practice on in the summer time, but its made of concrete so its much rougher than ice. The track is 8/10 of a mile and we completed it in just over a minute! Boy was that a long, rough, scary minute!! Only 4 people ride in the sled - the driver was in the front, then we had a girl that worked there ride with us (to weigh down the sled), then me, then Mike in the back. Everyone is pretty close together so you can't really see where you're going......it was so rough - my head was bobbing around all over the place and Mike's back was compressing against the back of the sled! It was crazy! Definitely not like any roller coaster I've ever been on! But it was sooooo much fun!!

After we did the bobsled, the sun came out and all the other stuff opened up...so we bought our tickets for the 2 zip-wires & the luge. I was a bit scared to ride the luge, but it ended up being a very tame ride...its the only ride where you actually control how fast you go....it goes down a stainless track on a little sled with a bar in the middle for the break....it was awesome! I went first and obviously didn't go near as fast as Mike did - he was so quick behind me that I barely had time to jump off my sled and take a picture of him!!

Next were the two zip-wires....the first one was a little one - not very high up, but because we'd never done one before, it was a good start. You sit in this harness/chair looking thing and the buckle you in & you hold on tight as they open the door and send you down! The second one was much, much higher...you rode a ski lift up that took over 5 minutes to get to the top. I think top speed going down the wire was 60 - it was awesome!

So then our Olympic journey was over. We drove to Parachute, Colorado where we stayed the night with Mike's friend's Dad (Jesse Hutchins)....he was such a hoot! We didn't get there till after 9, but we had a good time catching up with him and listening to his crazy stories! And boy was his house hot! Those Colorado folks don't use air conditioning! What a change for us - we go from freezing cold to super hot!