Dreams

So, if you know Michael you know his dream of flying. If you really know him you know he frequently actually dreams of flying. Since he's gotten older, married, had kids, (grew up...), his dreams of doing this aren't quite as likely to ever come true, but for his birthday I did give him a certificate from this website to go paragliding! (If you haven't been to that website, it has some AWESOME gift ideas.)
So a couple Saturdays ago we piled the kiddos in the car and headed out to the coast to watch another of Michael's dreams come true.

This is what Caden did the whole time...

Getting all suited up

Getting ready for takeoff

So normally in paragliding you take off from a mountain of some sort. This husband and wife team engineered a new kind of take off that pulls you along from a starting ground position and once you hit 3000ft you drop the tow cable and glide down like normal paragliding. Much safer because you don't run the risk of getting blown off a mountain, or getting slammed back into a mountain, or finding out your sail isn't working quite right once you've launched from the mountain, etc... It was pretty neat. Plus we got to watch the whole thing!

Taking off! It was pretty darn windy.

Up, Up, and AWAY!

My view of his ride - he's there, right in the middle by the cloud.

Gliding down - in the middle of feeling some serious G's as they took some crazy twists and turns

Safely back on the ground!

This is for all those California friends...they drive on the beaches here! Imagine having to watch your kids in the waves AND make sure they don't get hit by cars - it's crazy! BUT it was cool to drive on the beach, I must say.

Happy belated birthday present Michael. We had a great time watching you fly :)