Flying High...Well, Sort of

After our super fun weekend celebrating Gramps' birthday, Ian and I had more celebrating to do.  That Sunday was our 13th anniversary and we had another great Ian and Katy adventure in mind.  So, we left the boys with their Gram and Gramps for some fun, and we headed off.  We arrived in Fayetteville at Paraclete XP for a little indoor skydiving.  I had actually gotten the trip for Ian for Father's Day, but we didn't have a chance to use it until that weekend.

We arrived and headed up the elevators to the viewing room.  It was a bit intimidating when we saw people in the skydiving tube doing flips and all sorts of tricks, but fortunately, the beginners didn't have to do that.  After watching some of the experts do their stuff, it was time for us to begin.  Our group was great because it had a bunch of cute little kids and some clearly very experienced skydivers, so we had both extremes around us.  The training was just about 5 minutes of video and training on a few hand signals for bending or straightening our legs or bodies.

Then it was time to get dressed and give it a try.  It was a great adventure because it didn't take too much training and it didn't make me too nervous, but it was still something fun that we had never tried before.  We put on our suits, helmets, goggles, and ear plugs and were ready.

We headed into the air chamber where there was a little bench outside of the air tube.  We all sat down and got ready for our two one-minute turns.  All of us beginners alternated with the experienced team of four skydivers that would rush in and practice a formation routine-very cool to watch.  The kids went first and it was fun to see them flying around in there even though the guide couldn't really let go of them or they couldn't hold their form in the wind tunnel.

Finally our turns were up.  Ian went first and I watched him do a great job hanging out in the tube.  Then, it was my turn.  I put my hands across my chest and fell into the chamber, as instructed.  The guide held on to me for the beginning and then he let go and I could fly around the chamber and into a couple of walls.  You certainly didn't feel like you were flying because all the air was pushing on you, but from what I hear it was a pretty accurate representation of what skydiving feels like.  While playing in the tube was lots of fun, after that experience, Ian and I were even more confident that we never needed to try the actual thing, yikes!

We celebrated our adventure with an actual adult dinner out at Revolution, a great restaurant downtown.  Happy anniversary, Ian!  I can't wait for lots more fun adventures with you!   (Maybe we'll even take the kids next time.)

(a view of the outside of Paraclete)

(We're ready to go!)

(Ian's flying!)

(My turn!)

(We did it!)

(A great way to end a fabulous day.)