Our last hoorah of the trip: paragliding! We had watched the weather closely for days, wondering if we should book it or not. In the end, we went for it despite the 50% chance of rain and significant cloud cover. Kate and Owen were DYING to go, and the truth is that so was I. After I had booked, I double checked with Zachary and Brady, who both decided to go. We reserved places for them and then hoped for the best.
Brady had nightmares all night about it. So did Zachary. I was so excited, I woke up at 4am and could not go back to sleep. Owen woke up super early, too. Zachary bailed in the morning and said he just could not jump off a cliff. Our adrenaline junky has limits!
Owen was so animated and hopeful all the way to the meeting point. He wondered about the weather and could not wait.
Stoked!
Kate wanted to go first. Her biggest fear with her instructor is that he would "go easy" on her. She wanted a thrill.
Kate and Owen in the air!
I loved the experience so much and was laughing and happy the whole way down. My guide was apparently charmed by this and gave me the pictures for free because he "didn't want me to ever forget the joy." He asked me to pay the joy forward. When I got pictures, Kate and Owen had FOMO and promised to pay half for theirs, too. So Brady is the only one completely unrepresented here!
The whole experience was lovely. We were all surprised that our tummies didn't flip as we descended to the first cliffs, but as soon as we took control of the parachutes, we were swooping through the air. The guides all did acrobatics and swirls and flips with us, and that was some g-force and excitement! The landing was "fit for a princess" as my guide said, and much more gentle than sky diving landings!
We also gifted Owen's pass to a college student who was up at the cliff supporting her friend. She was so happy and nervous--she had been telling herself she would do it next time when she had the funds, but was also a little spooked. We saw her a few times after the glide and she was delighted.
We packed up from our very favorite chalet and headed down Murren one last time. I was surprised not to feel sad but instead hopeful that I would be there again sometime. Being there with kids was a gift. Owen always begs to replicate our family trip to Alaska, and I think this will be the trip I hope to replicate. (To be fair, I was in dire straights with an infection in Alaska!)
Last meeting up with Clarks: heading to Grindelwald via Pfingstegg lift. Owen's adrenaline rush wore off and we dealt with a pretty significant set of emotions on the way there. We initially hoped to do the Alpine Carts, but miscommunicated with Clarks so alpine coaster was our destination instead. It was so much faster and scenic than Park City and also 8 CHF instead of $30 USD, so felt like a bargain. We ended up coasting twice.
We made the trains to Zurich, enjoyed our first hotel with A/C, watched Argentina get whooped by Spain (I love you, Messi, but your teammates are hotheads), and ate red curry and Pad Thai. Our flight home was the least eventful experience of all international flights and I love Delta and I love the Delta lounge, where we killed 4 hours and got our 10,000 steps.
We are flying high from vacation and so tired at 9pm, you'd think it was 3am! We're experiencing the grateful, loving feels about spending this time all together, and also glad to be home and have fresh laundry!
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