this past friday, a coteacher asked a group of us if we wanted to climb a mountain. now, in theory, that sounds like a fun afternoon right? the great outdoors...good friends...should be fun!! i wish i would've taken a picture at the bottom of the mountain so you could see just how high we climbed. The picture looking down on the reservoir is from about 15 minutes into the trek. we're not even very high at this point. this trek we took on friday was on the "wild" path, not the pay-to-climb path. so it was intense. the entire journey up, our friends (and guides) kept saying "we're just going to that tower...its not very far." but it was far for a girl who never exercises. meghan and i, thankfully, were moving at about the same pace so at least i had someone to climb with. there were definitely parts that were just so steep that we stopped for air, rest and water every 2 or 3 minutes (i realize that sounds pitiful...but it was intense!!!). during the first 10 minutes, i seriously thought i might die and during the last ten meghan thought she wasn't going to make it. but in the end, we conquered the mountain. what made me feel pitiful was that we climbed with people who are much older than us and they seemed to be fine during the trek.

there is a lot to be said for frequent exercise. i woke up saturday feeling great but then yesterday and today i've been a little sore.

the view from the top was beautiful, but the hike was a little too intense. the next time someone asks me "do you want to climb a mountain?" i'm going to first ask "how big is this mountain?"

the night was made complete by eating out together at a fabulous restaurant. we all said we were hungry and the guy who ordered really took that seriously. we had so much food! we had several dishes to start the meal off and everyone was enjoying the food. then 200 dumplings were brought to the table! that is a lot of dumplings. there were only 10 of us to conquer the said dumplings and in the end joel was the one to finish them off. he must have eaten 30-40 of them because everyone just kept pushing the plates back towards him!
it was a great day but i'm not sure if i'll be up for the mountain climb again next time.