So, you know how the Utah sibs do big birthday celebrations? Well, Cade's 27th was no exception. It took us a while to decide on an activity that was the right amount of crazy and fun, and all the credit goes to Janae for suggesting that we kidnap him and take him to iFLY in Ogden. It was awesome.
I decided (at the last minute) to drop $49 and 'fly' too. I'm so glad I did. It was so fun.
We were forced to watch an instructional video before we could participate. It showed hand signals the instructor could use to correct our form in the tunnel. (Some of the signals were slightly inappropriate. Thankfully, there wasn't a need for those particular ones during our flight experience).
We had to practice our form on a random massage table they had.
This was our adorable instructor Ben.
So, after the instructional video, they gave us our 'flight gear' which consisted of a flight suit, earplugs, goggles, a helmet and Converse sneakers.
All of the bases were covered.
It was so LOUD so it was so good that we had earplugs, plus the helmets covered our ears. So, communication was rough in the chamber waiting room and the actual wind chamber. Ben just yelled any instructions and simultaneously acted them out. Charades on steroids. (Not that Ben was on steroids. He weighed about 87 pounds, bless his heart. He was freakishly strong though. He whipped us around like we were nothing).
When we entered the chamber (through the door on the right), we had to cross our arms on our chest and just fall face first into the wind. It was pretty nerve racking. They said the wind is anywhere between 160 and 180 mph. It was crazy! It was so hard to breathe and I might have drooled all over myself because I couldn't keep my mouth shut. No big deal.
So, the floor of the tunnel was made out of this chicken wire stuff. I didn't seem too stable to me. Below it (about 30) feet were some steel grates. I assume the fans (turbines? propellers?) were underneath those. (I wonder where the air intake grate is. Hopefully, not next to a sidewalk. Someone walking by would immediately get sucked to the side of the building. Awesome).
As I was standing in the doorway about to belly flop into the wind tunnel, I couldn't help but worry that the wind wouldn't hold me up and I would face plant on the chicken coop wire floor. How embarrassing. Thankfully, though, the wind and Buff Ben were able to hold me up and spin me around the chamber. It was seriously one of the coolest things I've ever done. I highly recommend it.
No comments on the fact that not only were my cheeks flapping in the wind, but my neck fat was too. I don't want to hear anything about it. (The above pic is my favorite from the whole day. I look like such a freak).
I love how Ben is so excited about something in the above picture.
We went into the chamber twice, one minute each time. It doesn't sound like a lot of time, but it was definitely sufficient. At the end of our second minute, Ben took each of us really high in the chamber. It was so cool! The chamber went up about 30 feet and we got pretty close to the top.
I literally felt like I had been beat up when we were done. It's so exciting/exhilerating/overwhelming/awesome/loud that all of my senses were completely overloaded and I definitely needed a nap (man, I'm old!). Oh, and a comb. I had some pretty awesome dread locks going on after my flight.
We finished off the night at Iggy's for dinner. It was also fun. I love hanging out with Cade, Krystal and Janae. We always have such a good time.
After we ate, Cade went to the bathroom. As soon as he left, like 10 servers came dancing to our table with an ice cream sundae all ready to sing Happy Birthday. When they got to our table and noticed he was gone, they stopped and looked all bummed. It was so funny. We're like, "Sorry, he'll be right back." When he got back and they all came back to sing we were all laughing pretty hard.
Good times. I love doing new things and making awesome memories.
