Standing on the edge of the plane about to jump was definitely the most surreal experience of the day. Everything after that was a lot less terrifying. Free falling for 60 seconds is pretty intense. Since you hit maximum velocity within 6 sec (thanks for doing the math, Miles), most of the time you feel like you're floating with a super strong wind whipping against your face. Once the parachute is launched, it becomes a peaceful glide back down to earth. (Rebecca got to drive the parachute most of the way.)
Miles and Phil were the last to jump. Everyone loved the whole experience. We ended the day with pumpkin carving and a Malaysian dinner.
Since our last major update, we've been doing our best to make the most of the remaining days of summer. We've spent multiple weekends up north between both cabins. Cheddar took us up to Boulder Lodge for a weekend of relaxation. Trevor spent a weekend up at Aspen Lodge with the Engel family while Rebecca maintained B.W.E. status and welcomed the Friedman's to town. We spent another weekend at Boulder Lodge with Sara, Scott, Jennifer and Bryan. Each trip was filled with sun and no bugs, perfect.
Congratulations to all of you!!!!! And thanks for making our lives interesting and bloggable.
Coming Up
The rest of the summer we hope to relax and spend some time up north. In any downtime, we'll be attending to our favorite half of the yard and other house improvements. We're heading to Florida to celebrate Josh and Ira's wedding, as well as hitting up a Walt Disney park. We also have tickets to San Fran for Erich and Jess's wedding.
To anyone who is still out there, give us a shout!
After breakfast the next morning, we climbed up to the crater rim (see photo above). The climb was extremely steep and took us about 2 hours. Once we made it to the top, the view of the clouds 20 feet from us was amazing. Fog up close is incredibly beautiful. (Note the sarcasm). In reality, the clouds and mountain landscape was eerily beautiful. Part way back to camp, the sun came out! At this point the view was incredible! The landscape around us was more of a mountain prairie with few trees. Below you could see lush forests and the city far away. Once we made it back to base camp, we changed and set in for a relaxing afternoon. Throughout the afternoon, we were joined by two other groups of trekkers, making it quite cramped and full of testosterone (14:1). The sun peaked out now and again until nighttime. The three of us squished together again with a dry air mattress and more shelter from the wind and rain.
The next day was very rainy. We did not realize that this was still the rainy season. Later on in the trip we were informed that the rainy season started 2 months late and thus will end two months later, bummer for us. We took a walk through the Monkey Forest, got massages and browsed town, despite the rain. The Monkey Forest is a small stretch of the road through town with hundreds of monkeys that protect the temple. Upon entering, we bought bananas and fruit. The monkeys were not bashful! Within seconds, Trevor had four monkeys climbing him and reaching for fruit. He threw a couple pieces to Sam who got bombarded as well. Luckily Rebecca video taped the attack. No longer holding food, we walked the rest of the forest watching the monkeys. We saw no other attacks other than ours even though everyone else had fruit as well, weird. We ended the day with tea and cake at the hotel. Our relaxing evening included a nap, a bottle of wine with cards and a final Indonesian style dinner. Trevor and Sam ended our Alam Shanti stay with a nighttime swim. The next day was an early wake up and off to Lombok. 
Even though we were all exhausted from the trek, we decided to go all out that night. We spent the afternoon trying to nap (only Trevor got shut-eye), getting laundry done (wahoo to fresh clothes), and cleaning ourselves. Once we were all ready, we found a cute restaurant to get some good Thai food. Since it was such a big day, we purchased one more Haagen Dazs bar for the road. Through the night, we stopped by multiple street side cafes for beers and drinks. Beers are easy to order, mixed drinks require effort. We never quite knew what we were going to get. There was a lot of pointing and shaking of heads, but we were often pleasantly surprised. The only thing we did realize was that a lime is called a lemon to Thai bartenders. 
The next day was full of trekking past the Chang Dao mountain to what is known as Lightning Peak. The top of the peak was 1800 meters high with a stunning view, minus the haze. The terrain was hilly, to say the least. We trekked through tea trees, evergreens, and a bamboo forest. After 7.5 hours and over 13 miles later, we arrived in our second village. The town was around 3 times the size as the first one, but no electricity. It made for some cool candlelit pictures after dinner.
The next morning we spent the day learning how to cook, Thai style. Sara and Rebecca took the chance to head to the market while the boys learned how to smash up many ingredients to make a splendid curry paste. Through the course, we cooked seven different dishes and ate them all. Needless to say, we were quite full by the end. We got a cookbook that included all the dishes the cooking school teaches. Most of the dishes include multiple chilli peppers and are pretty simple, so we look forward to trying them out on all of you upon our return. We spent the evening browsing through the Night Bazaar, a smaller version of the Sunday Market.
The next morning we took a boat to some caves up the Mekong River. We stopped by a paper making village and whiskey making village. The boat ride was beautiful, but the caves were nothing compared to Halong Bay. In the afternoon, we split up with Sara and Scott again and visited the most magnificent waterfall (they accidently saw it the day before). After an extrenuous hike up the right side of the falls, we realized there was a much easier route on the left with stairs. Whoops.
The first day we spent in Hanoi was hot and humid. By the time we got back from our trip to Halong Bay, the city had cooled off. It made it a lot more comfortable for exploring. We spent our time trekking through the Old Quarter, Lake Hoan Kiem, the French Quarter, and a gorgeous park with badmitton and water balls. In case you don't know what water balls are, we're going to set up a stand on Lake Calhoun after we return. They are huge plastic balls, filled with air. You climb inside the ball and run around on the water. 
Halong Bay is a 3 hour drive east of Hanoi. Tinh drove along with us to give us thorough background of Vietnam. We stopped by a center where disadvantaged kids make beautiful works of art. We left with three silk weavings and a few purses. I really wanted a gorgeous lacquer painting, but it would be too hard to travel with.
