'our' nights in Rodanthe {hang gliding ~ almost..}

Turns out sunrise didn't get old.  At  least in a week...

I didn't have much time to savor the quiet this morning though.  There was excitement in the air!  Even our typical later risers were up pretty early because finally today was the day!

When we visited Jockey's Ridge back in October several of the crew expressed their desire to, quite literally, 'spread their wings and fly.' With the amount we saved on the house for off season rates, we decided to somewhat blow their minds and reserve hang gliding lessons for all eight of us for today.

Some were a bit nervous, but there was excitement in the air as we approached.  First came basic instruction on how hang gliders work.  We completed 'ground school' and got helmeted and harnessed up.

Finally it was time to head out to the dunes.  

The weather was perfect...or so it seemed. 

But as we got closer to the top, there was a breeze...and a significant one at that.  I began to notice our actual flight instructor, whose name was Wolf and had calves nearly as big as my thighs, struggling to hold a straight line as he walked the glider up the dune.  Each time a gust hit, he tracked a few feet to his left.  This began a series of nervous visions of Nicholas catching a puff of air and ending up somewhere in the middle of the Roanoke Sound.

Thus it was not really a surprise and perhaps even a tiny bit of relief when Wolf turned to all of us and said, "Guys, I'm sorry, but I have over 100 hours of flight time recorded and not even I would attempt to glide on a day like today."  He said it so out of the blue though that for just a second I wondered if we were being punk'd.  And then there was another blast of air and I realized we were being protected. 

Thankfully, our pretty amazing kids ~ who have learned to roll with the punches over the past year ~  took the news in stride without a single incredulous sounding, "what in the world?" or "are you serious?" and simply started heading back to the ground school location to turn in their gear.  

Of course, you can't just end a day with disappointment and the hang gliding school was kind enough to offer an alternative...