Jake learns to fly; I ride along

My silence here has been due in part to another site I've had to build for class. It's at www.rachelswriting.com (I'll link it in the sidebar too) and, as you may guess by the url, it's a blog focused on my writing and reading endeavors. I realized more fully today that, despite the fact that writing is my major and ultimately my career goal, it often ends up taking a backseat to other things that "have" to be done and, in many cases, my other hobbies. This isn't exactly the recipe for success. But it's a topic I explore a little more on the writing blog, so I'll leave it at that.

This last weekend I took a break from all my "have to do" stuff and actually did a few fun things. Way back in December I bought Jake a one-hour flight lesson from an airport in Bowie, and this past Friday he finally redeemed it. I got to ride along in the airplane, which was a little 4-seater Cessna -- the inside wasn't all that different from climbing inside the cab of one of my dad's old trucks, except for all the fancy dials and screens on the dashboard (and the steering, and the wings sticking off the top... anyway). The plane's "driver's seat" was on the wrong side, like a European car, and Jake got to sit in it. The instructor handled the take off and landing and otherwise took over only to show Jake maneuvers (turning, ascending, descending, etc.). We flew over Prince George's county and past Annapolis to the bay; it was a clear day and we could see the roller coasters of Six Flags nearby and the Washington Monument in D.C. in the distance.

Somewhere over the bay -- in fact, the bridge in the back right corner is aptly called the Bay Bridge.

Toward the end of the flight, my stomach started to get upset, which I really hope was the result of breakfast and not the flight itself (I never have problems in commercial airplanes, and don't usually get motion sickness unless I'm trying to read). Either way, Jake loved it (I think he told me "thank you" like 86 times throughout the rest of the day) and is seriously considering taking more lessons to get his pilot's license. He has about 1% of his required flying time logged now.