Flying- Falling, with style!

I'm not that good with heights. It's not the being up high that bothers me. Airplanes and roller coasters and nosebleed seats are great. It's the falling that I'm not so fond of. One little splat, and no more waterskiing for you! When such falling is a possibility, my head tries spinning the world around to make the danger go away. All that really accomplishes is that instead of one cliff to avoid, there is suddenly a continuously shifting collection of cliffs, and I panic because every direction appears to lead to my demise. Pretty soon I'm shaking and crawling 5 feet from the drop-off and pretending like that's perfectly normal in the world.

 So what am I doing here?

250 feet up a tree, swaying on a 2 foot wide platform

Honestly, I'm freaking out a little.  That was the order of the day at Sonoma Canopy Tours.

It's the fault and pleasure of my darling friend and traveling companion, Becca Johnson.  She usually lives in London, and we traveled Wales and Ireland together two years ago.  But she was in Cali for a visit, so we found a one day epic adventure.  She says she doesn't like heights either, but she sure loved the tour.



Fortunately, the people are pretty nice and they try not to lose anybody.  And they let you do this.

Actually, we did SEVEN different ziplines!  Up to 25 miles per hour, sailing over trees and scaring the onlookers.  And scaring me, a little.  It totally helps to holler as you go zooming along! We also tried the rope bridge, spiral staircase, and rappelling.

So, did facing my fears make them go away?  No.  If there had been a ladder on any of the platforms, I may have climbed down rather than stand there any longer.  But there was no ladder, and I know I can do hard things.  Like flying- or at least, falling with a lot of style!