New #18: Fly a Kite

Kites have been flying all around my life recently. This past weekend there was a kiting festival up the street from my house, and not too long ago I had the pleasure of watching "The Kite Runner," (which was actually more disturbing than pleasurable, but still a great movie). Needless to say, I took it all as inspiration to take flight myself.

Yes, I have flown a kite before, when I was about 7 years old. So to stay pure in making it a new, I snuck a beer into the park, marking this as the first time I've flown a kite while drinking booze.

The concept of flying one seemed so easy. Just throw the thing in the air and it will catch the wind and gracefully sail away into the sky. Not so. My vague memories of this hobby not being as simple as it should be started coming back as soon as Kim and I got to the park. We tried just tossing our kites in the air, but when they continually just plopped back on the ground I remembered: one must run across the ground to get one's piece of plastic in the air. So run we did.

Sarah running with her uncooperative kite. Try not to laugh.

Even sprinting across the field, my kite did not seem too enthused about getting up in the air. It would catch a little breeze, but then slowly and pathetically droop back to the ground. It was embarrassing. Actually, Kim and I had given up all together, and in our expert kite flying opinions, decided we could catch more wind by driving to the top of a nearby mountain. Seriously, this was our plan. But luckily, before we had to scale any new heights, the kite gods smiled upon us.

All of a sudden, a gust of wind blew into our sails and took them in the air. It was so magical! We could hardly believe they were flying. We still had to maneuver a bit, but instead of running we realized we could just pull on the string to control the kite and keep it afloat. And that's when our little friends in the sky came to life and took on their character in the air.

Happy kites in the sky.

In fact, they had so much personality, we quickly realized how flying a kite is probably much like raising a child - each one is full of their own unique quirks ... and you can't take your eyes off of them without one crashing to the ground.

Kim's kite, which had Superman and other super heroes on it, was the more steadfast of the two. It usually just floated in one place, quietly waving it's feet of red streamer through the sky.

Kim flying high.

Mine, on the other hand was the troublemaker. It featured a robot from Yo Gabba Gabba, a TV show that from what I've seen is like crack for kids. And this kite definitely channeled that spirit. It was the first to get in the air, but after just a few minutes of solitary soaring would randomly go on a suicide plunge to the ground. No matter how much I screamed at it and willed it to even out, it almost always crashed head-first into the grass. It made me feel like a bad parent. Also, if I ever dared avert my eyes from the sky, my kite would get my attention again by wrapping itself around Kim's string, sending her baby on a free fall. What a bad robot kite I raised in the air.

Things were going well (above), until Sarah's kite death dropped to the ground (below).

Yet even with all the anxiety that came with trying to keep our crafts airlifted, kite flying was really one of the most relaxing and fun things I've done in a long time. I haven't laughed that hard in a while, even (and sometimes especially) when my kite decided to take a death plunge. I can't wait for the next gusty day to take my rowdy robot kite back into the sky and see what we can learn together.

New #17: Explore Wings Over the Rockies Museum

One of the most useful books I own is a tour guide to Colorado. Sure it's for the state where I live, and one might wonder what tourist information could I need at home? But filled inside are places and adventures right in my own backyard that I never would have discovered otherwise. Case in point: The Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum, an amazing museum tucked away literally in the middle of Aurora's suburbia. I never would have found it by myself - but thanks to the tour book, I got a glimpse of some history, airplanes and artifacts I couldn't have imagined were nestled in Colorful Colorado.

Big smile in front of a big plane.

The museum's building itself is a part of airplane history, set inside the former Lowry Air Force Base hangar (which was later engulfed by surrounding new homes - hence the seemingly odd location). Inside the enormous room are dozens of planes of all sizes and decades parked and offering an up-close look. From a gigantic B1A Lancer bomber (yes, I had to look that up) to compact spy planes, there were all sorts of vessels to the sky that I could read about, look inside and touch.


I admit airplanes have never been very interesting to me beyond the places they can take me. I guess it's always seemed like something just boys appreciate, like trains and poking dead things with a stick. And at the museum, Ben and my dad definitely were enthralled. But I actually found it very interesting to take a look at the details of the planes, like the big bolts that held the metal slabs together to make the wings, that somehow could lift that heavy hunk of material off the ground. It's really pretty impressive. And to think one person could sit in a tiny cockpit and control that massive behemoths through the sky is even more mind boggling.


Along with looking at planes, I got to fly one myself, too. A simulation of one, at least. It was the Wright Brother's first craft, which looks kind of like a wooden hang glider. With the help of a volunteer, I laid down on my stomach in the recreation of the plane. Controlling my elevation with a pole in front of me and using my hips to steer the rudder, I watched a screen as the stimulation of my plane slowly took off from the digital ground.

Me in the airplane simulator with the encouraging volunteer by my side.

I did a really good job the first minute or so, leveling out the plane over the prairie in front of me. All that was missing was the wind in my hair and the threat I could actually crash and die. Good thing, because soon I came across a neighborhood ... which didn't go so well. Long story short, I tried to avoid a tree and crashed into the side of a building. Game over for Sarah.

Here I am flying high.

And here I am crashing.

I may not be the best pilot, but I left the museum with a new appreciation of airplanes, as well at the people who design, fly and fix them.