Jaren and Sarah: Switzerland- Day 3 and PARAGLIDING

Today was amazing! Jaren and I went paragliding and it was incredible! I mentioned to Jaren yesterday when we passed by a paragliding advertisment that we should go! (It looked and sounded fun.) He agreed! So we decided to go! We made a reservation for today.

Before paragliding, we went back up to Gimmelwald because we loved that little town. (It's beautiful and reminds us of the Shire.) Then we hiked parts of the the Northface Trail again.

At 4 p.m. we met with our group to go paragliding. Jaren went with a guy from New Zealand and I went with a guy from Switzerland. My instructor (not sure what to call him), Marcel, asked Jaren and me if we were Mormons (we told him we were from Utah). He said he has a Book of Mormon at his house and has seen the Swiss temple. During my paragliding ride (it lasted about 25 minutes), Marcel told me that he went to Pakistan to paraglide and spoke with a girl there. He asked her if she was Muslim (he assumed she was) and she told him no. She said she was a Christian, a Mormon to be exact. He said he was surprised, there is a small community of Mormons in Pakistan and he met one. I thought that was so cool! Marcel was super nice, I enjoyed riding with him and talking about the church (briefly). We also talked about our National Parks and places to paraglide in the U.S. He thought it was cool that Jaren and I have been married for nearly 7 years!

Paragliding was an experience I will NEVER forget! I will definitely go again. It is amazing to be so high, soaring above the beautiful landscape! We passed a beautiful high cascading waterfall that cannot be accessed by hiking. We flew in the mountains and over the Lauterbrunnen valley. It was such an incredible experience, it didn't seem real! It was just unbelievable to see the beauty of the Swiss Alps while flying through the air! I got to drive for a little while and then we did crazy spiraling tricks in the air! (So fun and dizzying!) Once we landed I totally wanted to go again!

Me and my instructor, Marcel...

Jaren loved it too! He gets motion sick, though, and barfed in a bag while in the air! He felt fine after throwing up, though! We passed each other a few times while gliding! I'm glad Jaren and I like to do fun, adventurous things together (even if he gets sick)!

Jaren and his instructor, Dan...

Jaren and his barf bag...

Jaren and me!...

I. Loved. Paragliding!!!!!!!! I'm SO glad we did this! It was so adventurous, exciting, and new! We've never done anything like this before! It was a great way to end our time in the Swiss Alps.

More pictures from today...