U.S. Whitewater Center

We took Joe's parents to the U.S. Whitewater Center this past weekend. In short... this place is awesome.

It's located just outside of Charlotte along the Catawba river which runs between Lake Norman and Lake Wylie. Do you like how my knowledge of the area has improved? I actually am starting to feel like a true resident.

I had heard about this place beforehand, but I didn't realize how cool it was really going to be. There is so much to do! The list of activities we participated in include:

• rock climbing - we came back to this later in the day and Julie conquered the black diamond of rock walls
• mountain biking - although not on the trails, unfortunately the trails were too wet
• climb to zip - you climb up a net and zip down, repeat as necessary... in our case twice. After that it becam too much work for a quick zip down.
• adventure course - walk a tight rope while maneuvering obstacles, I laughed the hardest during this activity thanks to Joe and Jed. It was challenging, but rewarding
• kayaking on the Catawba - Jed, Julie and I bet Joe he couldn't stay dry while paddle boarding (we didn't bring swinsuits). Joe decided to kayak instead... smart choice
• canyon crossing - just like the adventure course, but higher up between trees with a longer course. Plus once you were done you zipped back to the starting point
• canyon zipline - I can't remember how many times we did this, it was fun and finally an activity that didn't take strength or concentration

Unfortunately we weren't able to whitewater raft. Of course this time of year the course is closed due to weather, although there's no snow. We did see the course though and it excites me to get back there again to test it out. We also weren't able to do the mega zipline (it is 1,000 feet long!) because the wind was too strong. Just another thing to add to my to-do list.

Now that you know what it was all about, here are some pictures.

Joe and Julie conquering the rock climb wall.

I joined in on the fun and showed the wall who's boss.

Then we biked around the whitewater rafting course. They had drained the water for repairs.

We spotted Hawk Island and were secretly planning to bring spray paint next time to make it Hawkeye Island

Getting ready to zip down. It actually took a lot in me to finally jump off the first time.

Joe getting ready to zip. You can see the net we climbed up.

Action shot.

Julie finishing the adventure course.

Don't look down!

The adventure course. Now doesn't that just look like fun?!

It literally started to rain a minute after we got in the car to leave. Perfect timing and ending to a fun day.