Ok, as promised, the weekend details. :) I woke up on Sat morning and was told to take a shower and get dressed and that we were going somewhere "fun". The boys and I were clueless. After breakfast we started driving West towards the coast. I was trying to guess where we were going, um beach, um, Tillamook Cheese factory, etc. and I remember saying, "as long as I'm not jumping out of a plane..."
DJ gave me a strange look. Little did I know, I almost ruined my own surprise. heh-heh. It was about a 1/2 hour drive on Hwy 26 and we arrived at the Willamette Valley Soaring Club. You can find out more info here at their website: www.wvsc.org ... When we got out of the car, I actually felt a bit nervous and queasy but very, very excited! There were a few gliders on the ground and we got a chance to walk around and talk to the pilots a bit. My pilot, Tom, was a very calm and patient guy and answered all of my questions, my #1 question was, "Is this safe????" hee-hee. He's had over 25 years of flying experience and he'll will be _my_ co-pilot. And then it dawned on me, "You mean, I am going to fly my own plane?!?!?!?" (the excited/giddy meter just went up 200%!!!) and I said, "When can we go?" And he said, "As soon as you hop into the glider..." Very cool. He went over the basics with me on how to turn left/right and up/down, and ascend/descend, etc, and most importantly, he showed me how to land the glider plane. Meanwhile, my boys are both wanting to go flying with me but then daddy was kindly reminding them that this was mommy's "present". (and I'll probably won't let them on a glider until they're both teenagers... heheh) Anyway, so, Tom buckled me into the glider and he hopped in the backseat. The other pilot attached the tow line to the lead plane (the one that will take the glider up into the air) and then, before I knew it, Tom was giving our pilot the signal for us to GO. :O

And then I find myself slowly lifting off the ground. It was a little bumpy getting off the ground but once the glider lifted off, it was smooth sailing afterwards. We climbed up to about 3200 feet in the air and then Tom showed me how to release the tow line. Once we were unhitched, we were just up sailing in the air. We were a good distance up in the air and I couldn't make out where my kids were on the ground but the sights were beautiful. What I noticed most was that it was a relatively quiet ride (a bit windy and cloudy that day though). Once the glider plane leveled off, Tom waves his hands to show me that he's not controlling the plane and that I WAS.  He said that I could fly the glider any where I wanted to go. So, you know what I did? Nothing. DOH!!!  I just hung onto the "stearing-stick-thing" and took a deep breath.  And then after about 10 seconds, I decided to have some fun. I banked left just as a gust of wind blew in our direction. Tom "helped" me level off the plane. heh-heh. And then I banked right, passed the green fields. Then he told me to head for a big pile of logs on the ground because (i didn't know this) the wood warms up on a hot day and gives off a "thermal" draft which would give the glider some lift--- that would prolong my air time. :) I was having too much fun that I forgot that I was nervous at all. Then he said when the altimeter (sp) read 750 ft, we should head back to the landing strip. The time felt all too short, I still wanted to stay up in the air and glide around some more. Then, Tom took over the controls and guided the glider down for a safe, smooth landing. The boys ran over and gave me a great big hug after I hopped out of the glider.  It was such a fun and amazing experience.  Thanks boys!  :)