Jumping Out Of Planes

If you know my mom, you know she HATES heights. Sure, she may love roller coasters, but get her up high somewhere and make her look down and she would probably punch you in the throat or baby-maker for it.

Yesterday, while we were hiking to Potato Chip Rock, I don't know what made me think of it, but I said something along the lines of, "So, you wanna skydive while you are out here?". Normally she would have said ABSOLUTELY NOT, but she actually pondered it. This morning, after running (she biked along with me) 17 miles I asked her what she wanted to do today. She asked me a little more about sky diving and I knew I had her :)

Ryan and I live about 5 minutes from the Oceanside Airport. When we ride our bikes on the bike trail, we love watching the planes take off and land. About two years ago they put in a sky diving business and we can even see the skydivers from our condo complex. Ryan and I actually went sky diving for our one year wedding anniversary, but I thought it was something my mom would NEVER do. When she entertained the idea I was SHOCKED and KNEW I had to jump on the opportunity {yes, the pun was intended}.

I called over to Tsunami Skydivers to see if they had an available openings for us today. The nice woman that answered the phone said they did and asked if we could head over. I told her we'd be there in 10 minutes :) {didn't want to give mom any chance of backing out}.

When we got over to there, we signed our waivers, paid our moneys, and waited our turn. There were two plane full's before our turn. We were able to watch the folks before us get suited up, board the plane, and even were able to drive over to watch them land.

This was mom's nervous face :/

We were the last jump of the day, and only mom and I (along with our tandem partners) were on the plane. The views were AMAZING from the plane (and obviously when we jumped as well). On a clear day they said you could see all the way down to Tijuana (although today it was a bit hazy).

Mom was pretty freaked out and said she wanted to go first. They scooted to the door, rocked a couple times, and they were out. Next up - ME! Shawn, my tandem partner, told me since it wasn't my first time, that I would probably be a lot more aware on this jump. He asked me if I wanted to do some rolls and I said OF COURSE. He told me it was fun seeing the bottom of the plane, which it was. We did a good bit of free-falling, which was awesome, although it was pretty chilly (thankfully he found me a hoodie to borrow, since he had jumped on the plane before ours and knew how cold it was). He even let me steer a bit on the way down.

Of course we didn't pay the $80 for the video and pictures, but the guys were kind enough to offer to take a couple pictures of us near the plane once we were back on the ground.

We even got a certificate proving our craziness :)

And shoot, mom even said she might want to do it again - so I would consider the adventure a HUGE success.