Cave dwellers suffer from oenophilia...

Oops. Just realized we never posted about the final leg of our Vancouver adventure... not surprising considering the week we just had! The night before we were to fly home, United Airlines suffered from a computer glitch that almost kept us grounded in Vancouver (Oh, darn the bad luck!)... after a few delays, we made it home safe and sound-- and those dirty TSA people finally let Amanda go through security without going through the full-body scan for the first time ever. Awesome.

(Tangent: Here's an image that will keep you awake at night... Thousands of tourists from all over the world sharing their assorted foot fungus walking through the same metal detector. BAREFOOT. Gross.)

Back to our story...

So, the group decided to go spelunking. Us crazy Americans think this is going to be some kind of "Carlsbad Caverns"-type tour, complete with refreshments, ramps/stairs, and maybe some interior lighting. No. Such. Thing. These two little teenage girls lead us uphill along a 5-mile steep slope like a herd of sweaty buffalo, to a little 2ft x 2 ft hole in the ground, where we strap on helmets with headlights. True Story.

...Journey to the Center of the Earth

As we crawled into the hole in the ground, we are immediately greeted with a 50-foot drop in which we are to descend down a rickety old iron ladder into a cold, damp, pitch-black nothingness. Our headlamps were our guide as we crawled on our hands and knees... this was not for the faint of heart...

 

 AND, ALAS, WE MADE IT OUT ALIVE...!!!!!

...And this is how Amanda felt about all that:

"ARE. YOU. SERIOUS."

So, we rewarded our effort with a little refreshing sippy-sip at a local winery (...WHAT?? NO PICTURES?? HOW DID THIS HAPPEN??)

However...

We did manage to snap some fun shots in front of this lake... Enjoy!

Heather, Laura, Amanda, Adi

<3, The Gatlins!