Chamonix day 2

This morning I woke up pretty early because my alarm was dead and I was affraid I wouldn't wake up. I got ready and grabbed some breakfast at the grocery store and went over to the train station to meet my canyoning guide! He was so nice and actually spoke English! Yay! We went and picked up the family that was going with us and headed for the canyon. When we got there and started to get dressed I quickly learned that the family who had 2 kids did not speak English. Only french which put me in for a lot of translating time with the guide as to what we were doing. We got all dressed in wet suits and headed up the mountain. I had to wear my tennis shoes which sucked because I wanted to go hiking later and they were about to get soaking wet. Grr. We hiked for about 20 min and got our instructions and hoped in the water. Canyoning is pretty much rafting minus the raft. You just slide around on your but down the rocks and off waterfalls and through chutes! It was so much fun!! I jumped off a 15 foot cliff, which hurt a lot less with the wet suit!!, and repelled down a 70 foot water fall. That was fun because on the last half you were sliding down the water fall with your back on it and water just pounding on top of your head. The kids were screaming and crying which was annoying but we all made it alive! It was so much fun! I wish I could have done the full day but I have plans for Sunday... Tour de France!!! Which I can't miss. It took us about 3 hours to get down and then we got undressed and in dry clothes and headed back into town. All my appliances were dead so I got a converter that didn't work and went and grabbed lunch at this bagel place. As close to American food as I could find. Pretty good too. I went back to my hostel and grabbed my wet shoes and put them on and headed off for the mountain. I decided that I wanted to see the ice caves so I took the the up to montevers. I was so tired that again on the way up I was falling asleep in the train again. Hahah. At the top I imedidately got onto the cable car and went down to the ice caves. They had a sign posted that there was 400 stairs both ways to the caves but I am so used to climbing that many stairs lately that it was no big deal. Just another stair case in Europe. Haha so I hiked down and walked into the caves and immediately regreted my clothes choice. Shorts and a tank top aren't too warm in an ice cave. I guess they have to recarve the cave every year and been doing it for some 60 years. Seems kinda silly to me but I guess I'm not trying to attract tourists either. The cave was realatively short and they had lights which would turn the whole cave blue and green and purple. It was really pretty. They also had carvings within the cave. A polar bear. A bedroom. A bar I think and other stuff. They also had a st. Bernard in the cave that you could pay to take pictures with.  Haha. Shouldve done it. Oh well. After the caves. I really wanted to see the top of auguille d midi. The really tall mountain. But I was running out of time considering it was 4. I thought about taking the train back and then riding the lift up but it would have taken an hour at least to do all that so I decided to hike the same route I did yesterday but backwards. And I was trying to make it in under 2:05 min. The hike was a lot harder this way. It starts with a giant mountain to hike up and then you go down for a little and then it's just a gradual uphill the rest of the way. The scenery was amazing. Arguably better than the day before. I didn't see anyone else on the trail going my way and only a few coming toward me. I ended up making it in 1:45 minutes. My butt is still sore. Haha. But the lady told me the wrong time and I was 10 min late to catch the last gondola. Grr. But it all worked out because I was exhausted and starving. I came back down the mountain and took a shower and then headed off for dinner. I ended up eating at the same place as I had the night before. When I walked in the same man was there and I was like hi! I'm back! And he looked over to this girl at the bar and told her this is the girl I was telling you about!! Haha apparently she is from Durango and out visiting and so we talked for a while before I ate. I had the same thing as the night before and it was still just as good. After dinner I headed back to my hostel and when my phone wouldn't charge I went out to see if the guy at the front desk would do it for me. I ended up talking to him for a while and  then te israli boys that were saying there too came in so I talked to them for a while and then headed off to bed. Pretty amazing day! Love chamonix!