| Salt Lake City - Olympic Park |
| Salt Lake City was home to the Winter Olympics in 2000. Most of the courses and event sites are still in use. We decided to head up to the Olympic Park and see how many new things we could try! |
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| It's January in Utah, and up in the mountains it's cold and snowy. Not much sun on this day, but in the background you can see the snow-covered mountains while Melody and Karen pose for their picture. |
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| This is an official bobsled used in the olympics. They have several on display in the History of the Olympics Museum. You can even train and take a ride down the bobsled track if you want to! |
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| It's just like being there. Most of the signs are still up making us feel like we are really there for the Olympics! It's so cool! |
| This is the start of the Luge/Bobsled track. The little black arms start the timing mechanism. We got to see this on our tour, but didn't actually go down the track. |
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| The sun tries to peek through the heavy cloud cover, but ultimately, we didn't see any sun this day...only lots of snow! |
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| Park of the training required before you can actually take a run down the bobsled track is to have several men hold on to the sled as you inch your way down. The whole experience with the training lasts several hours, but the real ride down only lasts several seconds!! |
| Mark and Melody are ready for their run down the bobsled track in this sleek red bobsled. Don't they look like they are having fun? |
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| The thrill of victory...the agony of defeat! This is the top of the ski jump where brave men and women sit at the top and then stand up and go flying down this very steep and very long ramp. They said kids as young as 5 have went down this ramp already. The younger the better, because they aren't as scared as they older folks. |
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| We all decided to try something a little tamer and opted for the zipline. It was a blast. Here Melody comes down waving her arms. "Look Mom, no hands!" We recomment this to everyone. It's a blast! |
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| Mark poses in front of the gates at the top of the zipline. You ride the ski lift up to the top of the hill and then enter the gates to take your zipline ride to the bottom. What a rush!! |
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| This is a look from the bottom of the ski jumps. Watching on TV you just never get an appreciation for just how high, or how steep these jumps really are. There is nothing to protect the jumpers...they just come down on their two skis...(if they are lucky!) I know I have a new appreciation for the ski jumping sport! |