Up Up and Away

So the original impetus for our trip to Asheville last week was this groupon that came available many many months back, for a flying lesson. Like, an airplane flying lesson. Which is something Mark has wanted to do for a long time. And since this one was first of all cheap, and second, located in a beautiful part of the state, over the blue ridge mountains, I jumped on it and hatched a plan for a little getaway.

And somehow I managed to keep it a surprise from Mark until the very last minute. I'd say he didn't even have enough time to get nervous, but yeah... he totally did.

Not that I'm judging. I was sort of blasé and unworried myself, until after lots of back-and-forthing (is it ok at this stage in pregnancy? if a passenger comes is it considered a scenic flight? are we following faa rules for scenic flights? if she just happens to be out there and hop in the plane will anyone care?) I found myself sitting in the back passenger seat, along for the ride on his lesson... and once that plane fired up, I was totally nervous too.

And by nervous I mean terrified. And by terrified I mean panicking. And by panicking I mean, moved the headset completely away from my face so that neither Mark or the instructor could hear my freakout. Yeah.

It's not that I didn't trust him. Okay, it's totally that I didn't trust him. He didn't know what he was doing! And he was about to take my unborn baby into the sky! And in case you missed it, he didn't know what he was doing! Also the fact that he steered the plane down the runway in a not-dissimilar fashion to an out-of-control wii mariokart driver* didn't instill a lot of confidence.

But.

Mark did fine. And he loved it. And we were all safe. And the instructor was right there and could easily take over the controls when he needed to. And once I got over the feeling that we were going to fall out of the sky at any time, and opened my eyes to look around, it really was beautiful up there.

We flew around Asheville and over the mountains and (most excitingly for Mark) (no I am not kidding), a power plant (or something). But man do I love the sight of those blue mountain ridges, it's so very homey and carolina-ey for me. Gorgeous.

Mark even landed the plane pretty much by himself, and did a great job. It ended up being a really fun little adventure for both of us (and baby Sprout!) and a very cool way to spend an afternoon.

And yes, I'm glad I went along for the ride. :)

For more pics of our Asheville flyover, click here for the photobucket album.

*Ahem. Another Nathan.