Thrill Ride
Wow: a post that will not include Keegan at all. I guess we are still people too, besides being parents: what a concept!
Since it has been a pretty busy, stressful year, and both of us had a BIG birthday celebration in the past few months, we decided to try to do some fun things together. I have recently became “addicted” to the daily-deals coupons sites such as groupon.com, circlebuzz.com, or the San Diego UT daily deal sites. These are great resources to find fun, discounted activities and services. We use these site to book for a great nighttime kayak trip to see the Seaworld Fireworks, and to purchase massages and playground access. This time we decided to book a biplane ride!
Actually when I first saw the ad, I thought that Matt would not go for it since he does not like heights quite as much, but he thought it would be a fun thing to do. We have been watching these planes fly over our house for the past 7 years, so it was about time we tried ourselves.What made it even better was that he got to take a extra long lunch break on a weekday: so no babysitter required.
We met at Montgomery Field in a beautiful, if quite windy, sunny day. The temperature was a balmy 75, so the light jacket we brought was barely necessary. The company we used, Barnstorming Adventures offer different kinds of flights, including the 30 minutes biplane ride we chose. This is the description from their website:
“In helmet and headset, one or two passengers sit in the front cockpit of a meticulously restored 1920’s airplane. Your pilot flies from the back cockpit. It’s aviation like it used to be.”
We signed our life away, as always in these cases, and we went outside in the airfield. The biplane was waiting for us.
This is our plane
almost ready to go…I guess
We put on our headgear, and fit snug inside.
charming headgear
It is amazing to think that people actually were fighting wars in this thing. It is so small, and it barely fits two people. The pilot was in the back, and it was kind of funny to see that the most prominent sign we could see was the No Spitting sign. Uh???
We were quickly in the air. We headed to downtown first, where we could see the disabled cruiseship, the Midway Museum and all the other downtown landmarks.
The wind was really strong and it was bouncing us all around. I usually like this kind of thrill rides, but between the smell of the gas, and all the twist and turns, I really started feeling nauseous…good thing I did not ask for a particularly exciting ride! I guess I would have not made as a pilot during WWI. Fortunately as we headed up the coast to pass Pacific Beach and La Jolla, the wind changed direction and we enjoyed a wonderful ride. We passed Mission Bay, Calumet park (where we got married), the beach we usually go to, and the luxurious la Jolla mansions.
Calumet park (green area next to the cables)
PB and the Crystal Pier
We finished our tour flying over Clairemont. Thanks to my poor sense of orientation, I was not able to recognize our exact street, but Matt got to see it. We think our house is on the bottom left side, overlooking the green canyon.
We happily landed without a glitch. I was somewhat queasy for the rest of the afternoon, especially when driving, but it was well worth it!
Comments are off for this post