BRIDGEPORT– I was suspended high in the trees, the only thing between me and the forest floor 30 feet below was a silver wire strung with wooden blocks every few feet, and the ropes carabinered to my harness. I took a deep breath.
“Hurry up, Mom!”
We were in the forest of challenge courses that opened in June in Bridgeport, The Adventure Park at the Discovery Museum.
Grown ups don’t know anything. The three soon-to-be-5th-Graders with me were scrambling like squirrels, without fear, across horizontal ladders strung on trees, on a trapeze (softly) crash landing into a rope cargo net, and clipping themselves to ginormously long zip-lines. My friend Debby told me about the place; I brought her daughter with my two. As a veteran of this course she led the others with record speed. On one course, she trapeze-swung to a platform where I waited to grab her. Being smaller, she tried four times, ending in the middle of the air each time. Patient staff are ready to help. And they did.
Various configurations of cable, wood, rope and zip lines form bridges throughout the trees. Each bridge presents a different challenge of how to get to the next platform. There are eight different aerial trails from beginner to monkey.
This is the first aerial forest climbing and zipline park in Connecticut; Bridgeport’s less than an hour away- and there are great places to stop on the way or the way back.
“I was surprised at first who comes here,” said Tony Wellman, Director of Communications, “Families with teens, adults, and kids whose grandparents come to watch from below.” (No charge for that.)
I never realized this about parenting, but apparently there comes a time when roles shift, and they teach you how to be brave. Or that you really shouldn’t think so much, and just have fun.
Highly recommended. Full instruction on harness equipment is given.
The Adventure Park at the Discovery Museum 4450 Park Avenue Bridgeport, CT . 203-690-1717. info@discoveryadventurepark.org Age 12 & older: $49; Ages 10–11: $44; Ages 7–9: $39.
