Taking the plunge in Vancouver

Vacation. Oh, what a sweet and wonderful word. Every time someone hears it or utters it, images of fun-filled carefree days off from the mundane toil of everyday existence come to mind. Not to mention, finding opportunities to do things one wouldn’t do normally. It’s liberating in a way and God knows everyone could use a little time off from their day-to-day troubles. I sure did, which is why I jumped at the chance to hop on a plane and take a little breather of my own.

My "little breather" was hardly just that, it was more like a full-blown national lampoon type family sojourn to North America, rushing from one place to another just trying to get everything done. It was actually quite the production. This big vacation started last year. I had been listening to the Broadway recording of Wicked and had fallen in love with the musical. I wanted to catch it live on stage and I decided that since it’s been so long since I went to the US, I would save up for a long cross-country trip to visit all my friends and relatives and culminating in Broadway.

I started saving for what I knew would be a huge expense. I just needed to get the money for the plane ticket and the ticket to the musical and the rest would take care of itself. About a month after I had decided this was something I was going to do, my parents were invited to take a trip to Vancouver. They figured since they would be heading in the same direction and I needed to go with them, why didn’t we all just go together? I’m never one to turn down a free ticket and since going with them would take out a huge chunk of my expenses I decided why not, I’d just have to adjust my plans and detour through Vancouver.

We were all headed for Las Vegas after Canada and from there to our hometown of Colorado, which I haven’t seen in over 10 years, and from where I was supposed to head for Kansas and then finally New York while my parents were planning to go to Washington DC to visit some relatives and then head home. We all began planning for our various destinations and eventually, after a thousand e-mails and calls and plans falling through, we decided to go together. Kansas fell by the wayside and it was decided from Colorado we would head to DC then I’d catch my musical in New York.

It was a long and complicated process and a long and complicated vacation and looking back over the last month I can’t believe how much fun I had. It’s impossible to fit it all in one column, so I’ve decided to split it over a series of articles for the next few weeks and just talk about my favorite highlights.

Let’s begin where we first landed, in the pristine city of Vancouver, Canada. I’d already been to Vancouver once before so I’m already familiar with some of the more popular tourist sites such as awesome shopping on Robson Street, the Vancouver Aquarium, and Stanley Park. This time I wanted to try something new and my parents agreed so, along with my relatives, we rented a car and decided to drive to the beautiful small tourist town of Whistler.

Whistler is absolutely gorgeous. Not only is the air clean and smell sweet, it’s the perfect embodiment of an idyllic small town. Known for incredible skiing, Whistler pulls in all the tourists and even the residents with the promise of fun and relaxing activities such as biking through the town, salmon bakes, helicopter tours, zip lining, and various other snow sports. Since I’m not much of a skier (and the snow wasn’t that great yet) when we arrived I decided to look at other alternative things to do, which was when I came across Whistler Bungee.

I’ve always wanted to bungee jump. But standing at the booth and signing up I found myself already beginning to get scared and wondering if would be able to back out should the need arise. But then, the adventurer in me took over and I reminded myself that this opportunity may not come again so I went for it and drove out to the bridge over 150 feet high around 10 minutes out of town determined to take the plunge.

The drive to the base of the bridge was easy despite the butterflies in my stomach. What was difficult was the climb up. As my mom (who was there to take my photo) and I started making our way up to the bridge I started peering over into the itty-bitty stream below and the jutting rocks of the ravine. When we made it to the top I started getting even more nervous. Luckily, the guys from Whistler Bungee didn’t really give me much time to think and the moment I arrived they immediately had me sign the forms and waivers without giving me too much time to think and look over the edge.

They worked the speedy kind of confusing magic on my mom and somehow got her to sign up as well. She was actually interested in doing it too, she just wasn’t sure until the moment they pushed the papers into her hand and gave her a pen. So, the two of us headed out to the platform for a short safety briefing and before long I was strapped up and ready to go.

As the guys opened the door to the platform they warned me not to look down and to just jump which is a warning I, of course, ignored. As the door swung open I peered over the edge and immediately stepped back. I could feel the nerves rising and the river looked surprisingly small from my vantage point. Double-checking my gear I kept taking small furtive glances over the edge and trying to psyche myself up. I even reached a point where I considered asking them to just push me, but then I realized I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I didn’t just do it on my own. So screwing my courage, I just jumped.

The rush was unbelievable. As I plunged downward I felt like my stomach was going to pop out through my head. And the dizzying sensation of the ground getting terrifyingly closer was like nothing I’ve ever felt before. Then, just when I was sure I was going to fall and feel the river hard as concrete break every bone in my body the cord sprang and I suddenly found myself being thrown upward again. This time though the sensation was different. Since I already knew for sure I wasn’t going to die it was pure excitement and fun and I bounced around on the bungee cord. Then, when all the bounce was gone they lowered the other rope that I clipped on my harness and they slowly pulled me up.

Oh how different the feeling is of going up from going down. As I made my way slowly back up the 150 foot drop I felt exhilarated and triumphant and my adrenaline was rush so that I thought I’d have to run down to the car just work off my excess energy. As is, by the time I made it back up, I did a few small victory jumps and could barely keep the smile on my face from hurting my cheeks.

Then, it was my mom’s turn. Against her dwindling protests they strapped her into the harness and gave her the same warning they gave me – don’t look down – a warning that I backed up as well, having ignored it the first time. As I was watching her and I wasn’t sure she was actually going to go through with it. Then, this veteran jumper and the owner of Whistler Bungee who’s been jumping for well over 20 years gave her a quick but powerful pep talk. He just kept repeating that he would count to five and on five she would just jump. It almost seemed like he was hypnotizing her and as they slowly opened the gate he counted to five and off she went without a second’s hesitation. She certainly made me look like a wuss. I couldn’t have been prouder of her. And the smile on her face as they hauled her back up was 10 miles wide.

It was fun and is something I definitely want to do again. And after all, if you look at it from a bigger scale and as a metaphor for life the lesson one wants to learn is that sometimes even though things may look scary, you just have to do it. The rewards may far outweigh the risks and after all you can’t always back down when something scares you. Sometimes, you just have to go for it.