Here's a fun fact that many of you may not know: Jared's grandfather was a small craft pilot. He owned three different planes and Jared's mom had the ability to grow up with the magic of the skies. For the past several years, I had heard Jared say, "one of these days... I want to take flight lessons". So, for his birthday this year, I bought him his first flight lesson. It took from June 2nd until Oct 4th to book the lesson, but now that it has been done, I don't know that there is anything quite as incredible as seeing the bay area through the eyes of a pilot. I am not quite sure that Jared or I knew what we were getting into when we signed the waiver on Friday morning, but I can tell you, that it was more than what we bargained for. The trainer took Jared through every detail of his plane, instructing Jared on how to test the fuel (fun fact #2: fuel used in planes is blue) and thoroughly investigate the plane before departure. It was an extremely windy morning, so we definitely felt some turbulence as we headed up the coast of CA, but all in all, I walked away amazed at what I had just seen. If anyone is interested in taking a tour (or a flight lesson), I know that there are quite a few helicopter tours of the bay area and they are completely worth it. There is something remarkable about seeing the streets you drive on, the trails you hike and the beaches you grew up loving from a bird's eye. I am not sure how soon Jared will continue with the path to a pilot's license (though probably not until after our wedding), but I will tell you that just before we were heading out on the runway, a pilot and who I imagine to be his wife, were heading in. I could see them perfectly, through my window; the woman (sitting as a passenger) looked over, smiled and waived as they passed. Could have been entirely coincidence, but in the off chance that the universe is sending me a message from the future... we're definitely naming our plane "Apollo" (or "The Apollo"... something with Apollo) and I'd prefer blue stripes instead of the red ones.
