Momservation: I like my adventures without the possibility of death.
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I’m going to let you in on a little secret:
I am not as cool and adventurous as I look.
And if you already knew that, let’s just keep pretending that I have it all going on.
It’s true. I’m a big scaredy-cat. From my toddler days of being scared of the vacuum and being flushed down the toilet, to my teenage angst that included spiders and rollercoasters, to my current fear of heights that constantly makes me yell at my kids: “Get away from the edge of that!” — The struggle is real to act like a normal person.
But I do like to have fun. Especially with my active family. And if I want my teenage kids to want to play with me, I’ve had to step up my game on the family adventures. Nice, safe recreation of miniature golf or a bike ride along the river will quickly get me voted off the island these days.
So just like I had to overcome my fear of rollercoasters to have fun with my peers (and overcome my fear of the toilet to become potty trained), I’ve had to overcome basic self-preservation fears to keep up with my kids’ ideas of fun these days.
Think dirt bike riding, paint ball, extreme water slides, and zip lining.
And just when I thought I was going to get my Cool Mom badge, they upped the ante on me.
“Can we go bungee jumping?!”
No.
“Can we go cave rafting?!”
No.
“Can we go skydiving?!”
No.
Actually…yes. Yes we can! Here in Sacramento (and the Bay Area, plus 27 other locations across the US) we have indoor skydiving at iFly. No jumping out of an airplane. No hurtling 125 mph from 12,000 feet toward the earth. No fear of failing parachutes. Just a simulation freefall in a vertical wind tunnel where the dream of flight can become a reality.
And in our case, a nice guy named James goes into the tunnel with you to steer your flight so you don’t accidently barrel roll yourself for 60 seconds.
iFly was so much fun even for this scaredy-cat! There is no sensation of falling; you just float on a column of air. The first flight we stayed low with our super cool, certified, and highly-trained instructor letting us fly solo. The second flight, the high fly, James held onto us as we floated 20 feet higher. Afterward James did tricks and flips to show the different levels of indoor skydiving available to anyone. (Ages 3 to 103 and under 300 pounds, anyway.)
As far as active family adventures go it’s pretty easy, but a little pricey. You can go to iFlyworld.com to find a location near you. Then you reserve a date and time. For a family of 5 to have (2) 60-second flights it’s $299 with free video clips. (Each flight is the equivalent of 1.5 skydives. Trust me—it’s plenty of time for this flight that does warn in the waiver that it is an athletic activity.) Considering skydiving for one person is about $200 or taking your whole family to the movies these days can be a $100 trip, it’s a pretty good value for an extreme adventure—that’s safe!
Having my entire family experience “skydiving” together at iFly was just the kind of active adventure we could all get into and a great way to kick off our summer fun. Cool Mom badge secured! And you didn’t think I was cool and adventurous!
#iFlySacramento #SummerFun #ActiveFamilyAdventures