Shark Fête

My stomach muscles hurt from laughing so much. I'm covered in bruises and black fly bites. I'm exhausted and sated. I have trouble keeping the giggles from bubbling up when I remember something that happened. I must have had a weekend with the Mother Sharks.

My friends and I spent another glorious, fabulous, hilarious weekend in Quebec at Big Liver Girl's condo in the Laurentian mountains. Big Liver Girl is such a wonderful, accomplished and generous hostess that I am even willing to abandon my habitual slothfulness and go along with whatever activities she suggests. (Truth be told, one of the reasons I like hanging out with Big Liver Girl is that she makes me do things that I would never do on my own, and thus can brag about having done them for the rest of my life.)

This year we went to a place that has skiing in the winter and a Tarzan-like activity in the summer. The place has 59 "stations" way up high in the trees, and you swing or climb or zip-line all over the forest. The zip-lining itself was a blast, I could have done that all day....the longest line is almost a thousand feet long. Seriously, it was absolutely thrilling. The other activities didn't delight me nearly as much....one of the most very basic of human instincts is a fear of falling, and when you mess with that fear, you will come very close to losing your shit altogether.

Here is my friend Shawnee on her way to meet Big Liver Girl way up on one of the "stations". Those two did the course like they were born to it, swinging and cavorting their way from one tree to the next. I think they are both part cat. My other friend, Spinner, and I struggled a bit, being two of the most sluggish people God ever made. We got through it, the course, though, albiet with incessent whining and a LOT of foul language. We are not "Survivor" kind of women, we are more like "Cancun" kind of women.

Spinner even got caught on one of the zip-lines; her glove got stuck in a pulley, and there she was, stopped dead in the middle of the line, unable to go forwards or backwards, wayyyyyy up off the ground. This concerned me greatly, partly because she is my good friend and I was concerned for her safety and well-being, but mostly because I couldn't go past her, and I couldn't get down, so I was stuck up in a tree 50 feet off the ground until she got unstuck. One of the guides was close by and didn't he just skip up the tree I was on, shimmy his way over to the damsel in distress and liberate her, AND deliver her to the next tree, all in about 12 seconds flat. He was magical, that monkey man! If he had been better looking, I think she would have fallen in love.

Here I am coming in on my final zip-line. I think I would like to do that part again, very much.

We live in a part of Canada that is lovely, but very flat; mountains hold a particular thrall for us. This shot is looking back towards the condos with the ski hills in the background, taken when we were walking to dinner. Who wouldn't fall in love with this place?

We went on a hike another day, went out and had drinks at a very swanky bar, were fed well, did some shopping and hung out by the pool. And we talked and laughed and had some sangria and thoroughly enjoyed the holiday from our every day lives. And of course, had spectacular company. Thank you, Sharks, and thank you, Quebec....you never disappoint.