But blue skies often mean unstable air, as strong winds have swept all the clouds away. Sure enough, the wind had picked up overnight. But that's okay! We would need the wind for our hang gliding lessons today!
We spent the morning lounging around the campsite. Charlie had bought a kite -- a model of the Wright Brothers' airplane -- at the museum yesterday, and he spent some time flying it on the beach before turning the string into an impossibly tangled nest of despair, which, I suppose, was inevitable.
We drove to Jockey's Ridge State Park, which is just south of the Wright Brothers National Memorial, and which boasts the tallest living natural sand dune system in the eastern United States. The largest dune looms about 100 feet above the surrounding area. After a picnic lunch, we discovered that today is the park's 39th birthday, so we enjoyed live music and free shaved ice before checking in for our hang gliding lessons, which are offered by Kitty Hawk Kites, a big name in outdoor adventure here on the Outer Banks.
Before heading out to the dunes, we watched a brief video that covered safety guidelines as well as the history of the sport of hang gliding -- it's only been around since the 1960s, essentially, and was all the rage for a while but then never really took off. In fact, one of the instructors pointed out that there are more pet tigers in the United States than there are hang gliding hobbyists. I don't even know what that means. But I can't imagine that there are that many pet tigers hanging out around the country.
After donning helmets and harnesses, we trudged out to the dunes. Our instructors, Rich and Collin, looked like they just walked off the set of "Point Break," all shaggy and, you know, hang-ten, dude. They demonstrated how to hook our harnesses into the frame of the hang glider, how to hang on to the bar (with a relaxed grip) and how to speed up (pull in), slow down (push out), and flare and land (push the bar all the way out and up).
And then we got to fly. We all took turns, and by then end we each had taken five flights. It turns out, the conditions were very windy for hang gliding -- almost too windy. Ideally, the wind will be at 8 to 10 mph, and student pilots will sail over the dunes for several hundred feet with little assistance from their instructors. Today, the wind was blowing at more like 20 mph, and two instructors had to tether themselves to the glider -- one on each side -- to keep us from either flying away or flipping over.
Collin pointed out that Keith and I both needed to relax our grip and practice gazing ahead, rather than taking the bar in a death-grip of fear and focusing hard on the ground below. With each flight, we got a little bit better and sailed a little bit father down the dune. The kids all flew fantastically. I think Clare may have enjoyed it most of all. It was so surreal to see her tiny body airborne, strapped into the frame of the glider.
On our way back to the state park visitors center, we chatted up Collin a bit and found out that he had just moved to North Carolina from Texas. He had been washing cars for Enterprise Rent-a-Car, and one day just packed up and left to be a hang-gliding instructor. We asked him what his plans are for the future, and he said that one day he'd like to hang-glide the Himalayas. And Keith and I, so jaded in our old age, were like, "That's great, but what are your plans. For the future?" Sigh. We were once full of youthful hope and optimism, right? Right?
After our three-hour lesson, we returned to the campsite for a relaxed dinner, and then an Uno tournament in the tent. The wind is really blowing tonight -- we could really feel the tent shuddering in the breeze. I hope the kids can sleep through it!
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