Earning our daily breakfast taco

Every so often it really feels like winter here. The last couple of weeks, it's been consistently cold, damp, and overall dreary. However, this weekend the Sun broke through and was yet another reminder that winter is more of a suggestion than an actual season here. We celebrated by going for a hike Saturday and generally spending as much time outdoors as possible. On Sunday, we decided to check out this obstacle course place that we'd seen the weekend before (it's across from McKinney Falls State Park). It's a 75-acre hilly area with wooden pillars and walls and other obstacles for you to run, climb, and balance on. Or essentially, a playground for adults.

I'd been wanting to try it because some of the obstacles looked like the ones on American Ninja Warrior. For those not familiar with the show, it's basically watching people take on a really difficult obstacle course. Some of the obstacles involve balance, most involve a ton of upper body and grip strength, and a few just involve a willingness to throw yourself at something and potentially end up getting hurt (these would the ones I would be worst at). I'm not sure why I find it entertaining to watch, but I do.

I made the mistake of climbing the rope that didn't have a bell to ring at the top. What's the fun in that? 

Anyway, as regards this obstacle course, during the week they have classes, but on the weekends (when there isn't some office team building) it's open to the public. On this particular weekend, we were the only people on the course, which was kind of fun. There were some people taking some sort of Spartan Race certification class, but they were away from the course, listening to a lecture, and taking notes. They could see us some of the time though, and I can't help but think they thought we were rubes because we were taking pictures instead of being super hardcore.

I like that it looks like Sam is tearing the wall in two in this photo. 

Overall, most of the stuff was doable. We weren't able to climb over the taller walls, or do the inclining monkey bars, and I stopped pretty quickly into an obstacle that involved jumping from narrow pillar to narrow pillar because that seemed like a dumbass way to break an ankle. Still, I was happy with the obstacles we were able to make it through. And overall, it was a pretty good workout, although probably mostly because we did a few hill sprints and ran around a lot. Either way, afterward we felt entitled to a trip to Donut Taco Palace 1 (the poorly named, but delicious, taco/donut place by our apartment).

I didn't make it much farther than this. 

I don't think I'll be making to the next season of American Ninja Warrior anytime soon, or even doing an actual obstacle race, but it definitely wasn't a bad way to spend a beautiful Sunday morning. Nor was eating a bunch of breakfast tacos and donuts afterward.

View from the top of the hill. Well not so much a the "view" as some birds Sam took a shine to.