My First Mothers' Day (sort of)
Having not yet had the baby, last Sunday probably wasn't really my first Mothers' Day, but the lovely people at Montana Pines gave me a flower at breakfast anyway :) They got very excited, actually, given that I was obviously a soon-to-be mother. It was super fun!
After a delicious (read: pastry-rich) breakfast at the resort, I took the shuttle to the beach with a friend that Michael and I met while on vacation. Her name is Silvia, and we met her and her husband (Dieter) on a fantastic 12 Island Boat Tour. (Soon we will write about that as well.) Anyway, Silvia and I got on the shuttle and headed to the beach.
Why didn't Michael come? Why didn't Dieter come? Both excellent questions. They hung around for another 15 minutes or so and got on a truck which drove them up, and up, and up the mountain with a few other people. (Michael tells me this was the scariest part of the day, which I believe having been on those impossibly narrow, bumpy mountain roads.)
They stopped about 6,500 feet up the mountain, where they found the launching area. Then Michael was assigned a "pilot", sharply attired in a flight suit, strapped into a fancy flying
hammock chair sort of thing with said pilot, and off they went! Fortunately (as I've explained to my less-than-amused father), parasailing is not like parachuting; there is no freefall. Instead, you run about 15 or 20 feet with an open chute, and the air just lifts you up and off you go! In fact, you go up for a while before you start going down--but down you go, in the end.
Meanwhile, back at the beach, Silvia and I were settled onto our beach towels chatting away, and waiting until it was time to start watching the sky. (And, in my case at least, praying that this baby would get to meet his father, and that his father would be all in one piece when it happened.)
Silvia and Dieter are German, and it turns out that Silvia grew up in Jena! We were all very excited to hear this; most of the Germans we meet outside of the city have never been to Jena. So we had plenty to chat about. Because Silvia grew up in Jena while it was Eastern Germany, she had Russian in school instead of English, so all of our conversations were in German. This was great for two reasons: first, it's fun to see that I am now (almost?) conversant in German. I am far, far, far from fluent, but I can carry on conversations! We spent the better part of 2 days with Silvia and Dieter, all in German, so I got plenty of practice. Secondly, and probably more importantly, it is an excellent distraction to have to think so hard while chatting. So I worried about Michael a lot less once I was with Silvia :)
After about an hour and 15 minutes, Silvia and I walked up to the landing site and waited to be told which of the many, many parachutes we should be watching. Eventually, they said "well, one of the Montana Pines guys is in that red parachute" so we started watching and taking photos. As he got closer, we looked at the shoes (following their advice) and saw that it was Michael--white sneakers for Michael, black for Dieter :)
Michael came down looking like a 5 year old on Christmas morning (but in a flightsuit.) I don't know that I've ever seen him look so excited and delighted about anything before! And he landed safely, so it looks like this little guy will not be deprived of his father after all.
This last picture is cool, but only if you know what you're looking at. The pilot filmed a video during Michael's flight, which we were then shown with the hope that we would buy it. We did not buy it--most of it was a video of Michael's face, and not of the surroundings--but I snuck a quick picture of it :) So this is a photo of a video of Michael flying over the Blue Lagoon!
Having not yet had the baby, last Sunday probably wasn't really my first Mothers' Day, but the lovely people at Montana Pines gave me a flower at breakfast anyway :) They got very excited, actually, given that I was obviously a soon-to-be mother. It was super fun!
After a delicious (read: pastry-rich) breakfast at the resort, I took the shuttle to the beach with a friend that Michael and I met while on vacation. Her name is Silvia, and we met her and her husband (Dieter) on a fantastic 12 Island Boat Tour. (Soon we will write about that as well.) Anyway, Silvia and I got on the shuttle and headed to the beach.
Why didn't Michael come? Why didn't Dieter come? Both excellent questions. They hung around for another 15 minutes or so and got on a truck which drove them up, and up, and up the mountain with a few other people. (Michael tells me this was the scariest part of the day, which I believe having been on those impossibly narrow, bumpy mountain roads.)
They stopped about 6,500 feet up the mountain, where they found the launching area. Then Michael was assigned a "pilot", sharply attired in a flight suit, strapped into a fancy flying
hammock chair sort of thing with said pilot, and off they went! Fortunately (as I've explained to my less-than-amused father), parasailing is not like parachuting; there is no freefall. Instead, you run about 15 or 20 feet with an open chute, and the air just lifts you up and off you go! In fact, you go up for a while before you start going down--but down you go, in the end.Meanwhile, back at the beach, Silvia and I were settled onto our beach towels chatting away, and waiting until it was time to start watching the sky. (And, in my case at least, praying that this baby would get to meet his father, and that his father would be all in one piece when it happened.)
Silvia and Dieter are German, and it turns out that Silvia grew up in Jena! We were all very excited to hear this; most of the Germans we meet outside of the city have never been to Jena. So we had plenty to chat about. Because Silvia grew up in Jena while it was Eastern Germany, she had Russian in school instead of English, so all of our conversations were in German. This was great for two reasons: first, it's fun to see that I am now (almost?) conversant in German. I am far, far, far from fluent, but I can carry on conversations! We spent the better part of 2 days with Silvia and Dieter, all in German, so I got plenty of practice. Secondly, and probably more importantly, it is an excellent distraction to have to think so hard while chatting. So I worried about Michael a lot less once I was with Silvia :)
After about an hour and 15 minutes, Silvia and I walked up to the landing site and waited to be told which of the many, many parachutes we should be watching. Eventually, they said "well, one of the Montana Pines guys is in that red parachute" so we started watching and taking photos. As he got closer, we looked at the shoes (following their advice) and saw that it was Michael--white sneakers for Michael, black for Dieter :)
Michael came down looking like a 5 year old on Christmas morning (but in a flightsuit.) I don't know that I've ever seen him look so excited and delighted about anything before! And he landed safely, so it looks like this little guy will not be deprived of his father after all.
This last picture is cool, but only if you know what you're looking at. The pilot filmed a video during Michael's flight, which we were then shown with the hope that we would buy it. We did not buy it--most of it was a video of Michael's face, and not of the surroundings--but I snuck a quick picture of it :) So this is a photo of a video of Michael flying over the Blue Lagoon!
1 comment:
Sounds like a lot of fun!! Love the belly. You look good!!
Post a Comment