Orcas Island Solo

I flew solo to Orcas Island for the first time the other day. I'd done it once before with my instructor, but this was the first time I'd flown this far by myself. It's a 54 nautical mile flight and takes about 40 minutes each way.

A Boeing 777 taxiing behind my plane.

                      Whidbey Island Naval Air Station

             with fog covering the shoreline.

                  The San Juan Islands and the ships around them.

                                                          Deception Pass.

                                 It was pretty awesome =)

The Cane Tree

                                                                    What...?


 The other day Alaina and I went to Seattle Center together, we saw The Beatles laser show, went up the Space Needle, had lunch and dinner at the center house. It was great =) 

After dinner we lay on the lawn outside the center house looking at the Space Needle. Alaina noticed a couple and their daughter looking up a crab apple tree, so we got up, went over and asked what they were looking at. The man looked about 40 and had a scruffy little beard. He told us he'd lost his walking cane in the tree trying to knock someone else's frisbee down. Apparently whoever had thrown the frizbee up there in the first place had already left.

We tried grabbing the lower branches to shake it down which wasn't even close to working. The guy convinced himself he was going to climb the tree to get it. Alaina thought I should, but it was much too far out.

We decided we'd need a ladder, so they went to go find security. I was just going to sit and wait, but Alaina decided she and I should try and find a ladder too, so I ran after her to the center house. She called security on the information desk phone. I thought she was pretty crazy at this point. We waited by the tree for at least 10 minutes. Alaina thought we should get the names of the family, so we introduced ourselves to John the dad and Kristina the daughter, who looked just a little younger than us. I don't think the mother ever said her name. They were pretty hilarious people. Eventually a security guard named Jack arrived with a ten foot pool net. We showed him where it was, just out of reach. He tried poking around for a while. Somehow we decided somebody would need to sit on Jack's shoulders, Alaina, being the lightest, volunteered.

She poked at it for at least 10 minutes, it was seriously stuck up there. Leaves and little crab apples kept falling on Jack. At this point there was a massive pile of them on the lawn under the tree. After a while Jack had to go to help with a laser show. We kept the pole and continued trying to knock it down while contemplating other possible ways of dislodging it. After a bit Jack came back and suggested we move one of the park benches over to stand on. He and I grabbed either end of one and moved it under the tree. 

After at least an hour all together, we FINALLY managed to knock it out...

 And the funny part is that it was a cheapy $5 aluminum cane =P

Solo!

I had my first solo Tuesday! I knew in advance so Mom and Dad and everybody came out to watch. The first solo is the first time you get to fly the airplane with nobody in it apart from yourself. It was much more exciting and scary than I thought it would be!


It was strange and very exciting to see the empty seat next to me, and it was more scary than I would have thought to know that Damian wasn't there to catch any mistakes I might make.

It was one of the coolest things I've ever done! After I landed the ground controller asked me over the radio if this had been my first solo, I told him yes and he congratulated me and told me I had done a great job.

My instructor Damian with me after the flight. It was amazing!

Mom's encouraging me to make at least one post a week, about anything, so I'm going to start with my flying.

So ever since we decided we were going to move I'd been wondering about how I was going to find a flight instructor in Washington. I'd already passed the written test through self study and I was just lucky to find my instructor in Texas, a neighbor had introduced him to me. I wasn't sure if I'd have to go through a flight school, but I didn't want to do the unnecessary ground school and I just wasn't sure how it would work.

So last Thursday I called a flight school on our local airport and told them my situation and they said I could just come on out and start scheduling! We went and they had an opening and that very same day I got to have a flight lesson!!! It was insane how easy it was.

The flying itself was AMAZING! It's such a beautiful place to fly. We got to go out over the water where the sun was shining off it... The problem is you're so busy trying to concentrate on the lesson and fly the plane you can't appreciate it properly.
The airport is WAY larger than the one I flew from in Texas. It has a control tower which only the big airports have and it's kind of nerve-wracking because everybody talks so fast and there's a very precise order in which you have to say things over the radio. I got to make the calls for the first time today. It was scary, but I did it alright.

Sometime I'm going to get some pictures, maybe once I've had a few more lessons and have got a feel for things.
Anyway, it's a ton of fun and I can't wait for my next lesson!

Pictures!!!

So tonight I saw pictures from the All Hands In trip to a farm! I can't stand being left out! Normally I love to see the pictures after a fun day with everybody and now I'm seeing the pictures but I wasn't there! I see everybody I love so much: Jordan, Jeramy and David walking together. Jordan with his gymnastics shirt, David wearing his Kramer shirt. Kelsie making some weird Zombie pose in the corn maze. Natalie, I don't think I've ever seen her wearing jeans before. Sarah wearing that hat I tried on once. Quinn talking to Ethan. Paul, Brianna and everybody else!

I don't even know what to say, it's awful, the fact that I couldn't go today, that I won't go to anything there this year and that, most likely, I'll never live in the same place as and regularly see all my friends ever again! That's a really depressing thought! And this is a depressing post! The only light at the end of the tunnel here is May. I'm going to take a trip back in May and I'm DYING for it!

Seeing the pictures today though is the first real proof that I'm not there, pictures of everybody doing something fun without me, and it's TORTURE.

I miss everybody so much!

Hugs

I can't believe we're not going back. I know I'm not, but deep down, it really hasn't sunk in. It's been four days since we left, I know we're not going back but I don't feel it yet, we might as well be on vacation, a couple of times I've actually called it that on accident!

So many things have happened in the last couple months that have made it so much harder to leave including having so many awesome new people join our "park group" and finding the BEST piano and cello teachers in the world. If we had left a year ago I would still have been sad, but not nearly as upset as I am now. Sometimes I almost think we should have just moved a year ago and I might have been more willing and happy to go, but of course, I wouldn't want that at all and I'm so glad I had such a great time right up to the end.

I keep thinking about the good-bye party and going over it in my mind, even having dreams about it! All the hugs I got have made the last few days brighter every time I think about them. Thanks guys!

Maybe my favorite series of pictures ever;