Oh yeah

Let's see - what else besides attending weddings and parties has happened recently?

.....oh yeah, we went for a glider ride and it was amazing!!!!

Way back when (ie 2010) I purchased a coupon for a glider ride for two as an anniversary gift. However, over two years went by and we never made it over to Minden, Nevada for our ride. We finally found a free weekend and the ambition to drive to Nevada and we're so glad we didn't just let it slide.

The gal running the place wasn't real happy about us showing up with a discount coupon from 2+ years ago but we quickly got it worked out and minutes later were being pulled behind a small plane in an even smaller glider. For those of you who might not be familiar with gliders (and let's face it, why would you be?!) the are small, light aircraft that don't run on an engine but glide through the air on thermals after being towed up behind a regular plane.

The takeoff was amazingly smooth and graceful. I didn't even notice when we first lifted off the ground. It was an odd sensation to look out the window and see a rope behind a plane only 100ft in front of you. Imagine being pulled behind a boat on and inner-tube - but in the air!

That first moment when the rope is released I had a moment of intense fear - what if we plummet to the earth like a rock?! But the ride was peaceful, quiet and provided a stunning view of the town below and Lake Tahoe.

I'm working on reformatting a couple of videos to show you exactly what I'm talking about :) The only scary/crazy part of the ride was pulling 2.5 Gs as we did a flip in the air. Ahhh! To be honest, we both felt a little sick when we got back on the ground but were so glad we told our pilot that we wanted a "fun" ride. When else am I ever going to get to do a flip in an aircraft.

After calming our stomachs we drove to the east shore of Lake Tahoe. We pitched our tent at a nearby campground and walked over to the lake to soak up a few rays.

I love Lake Tahoe. Like REALLY love it. The water is clear, the sun is bright, the sky is blue and everyone is always in a good mood when they're in Tahoe :)

We lucked out with a great campsite on the edge of the campground, away from everyone else.

We were excited to use our relatively new tent and brand new 2-person sleeping bag. Like two peas in a cramped pod....

Can you tell what's cookin in the pot over the fire? After testing out our freeze dried rations (Andrew was really excited to buy a big box of ration for hike in camping and emergencies - they were actually surprisingly good!), we made cinnamon rolls haha the bottom got pretty burnt but it wasn't anything a big glob of frosting couldn't remedy.

On Sunday morning we went for a short hike, picked up burgers at Andrew's favorite Tahoe burger joint and make the 4 hour trip back home.

I love random weekend getaways with my boy ;)