Salisbury & Skydiving (not me, mom, don't worry)

So one of the big items on Rachel's to-do list while she was here visiting was to take her brother skydiving for his 21st birthday (much to the joy of their parents). She found an airfield a couple miles from a little town called Salisbury, and so we went on a little journey. 

The funny thing about the day was how we thought we'd get there at 11am, they'd be in the air by noon, and we'd be visiting the town by 1pm...not quite. 

When we got to the airfield, everything seemed business as usual. It was a beautiful day, so we totally thought they were in the clear. First, they had their training session. This is Rachel and Ben, executing perfect free-falling form. Rachel looks like she's superman.

However, after the training session, the instructor got really serious and informed us he wanted to manage expectations. For a split second, I thought he was going to talk about mortality rates and skydiving. But actually, there was something we hadn't even thought about...wind! Apparently, they would have to wait for the wind to die down below 20 knots. So that's what we did...waited...and waited...for hourly weather reports....I took pictures of the airfield...

 ...after a few hours of waiting, we decided to leave our number with the skydiving company and head into Salisbury for a little bit. If things changed, they'd let us know. First stop, Salisbury Cathedral.

So the Salisbury Cathedral is actually in the book, but I can't decide if this journey counts because we never actually went inside. We wandered around the grounds for awhile. Similar to other cathedrals, there were creepy gargoyle like things on the doorways. Is this a gargoyle? If not, poor guy..

I also think some of the reliefs over the years have been refurbished, as evidenced by the glistening clean statue sticking out like a sore thumb next to the guy missing his nose.  Though he didn't stick out as much as the guy on the right...I want to say that he's part of the sculpture exhibit...but I really don't know. 

  

So while we didn't make it into the church, we did make it into the cloisters. Does this count enough to cross it off the list??

The sky was definitely looking more promising as we wandered the grounds. But, we had no idea how hard the wind was blowing. Finally, we decided we had enough wandering and cathedral and headed off to find food. 

After lunch, we crossed our fingers and called the skydiving place. At first, we were told that the wind hadn't died down and that things weren't looking good. Then a few minutes later, a call back! They were going to try anyway! So we hopped in a cab again and rushed back to the airfield to try to finish by dark.

Because they needed to fly a smaller plane due to the wind, only one person got to go up at a time. And so the first diver began to suit up. Look at how her hair still looks like it belongs in a commercial. 

Examining the fantastic head gear 

At this point, Rachel was whisked away to have some pre-flight checks and wait for the plane. So I waited again...more pictures of planes...

 Finally, Rachel was loaded into the plane, and off she went.

Now it was time for Ben to suit up while we waited for Rachel's jump. 

And just like that, Ben was swooped off to meet with the airplane. 

While waiting, we got to watch this girl pack a parachute. She estimates she's packed 20,000 chutes in her life. It was pretty cool to watch.

Finally, we heard the distant buzzing of a plane. This incredibly tiny little speck that was so small, we didn't believe it could possibly be the plane, went whizzing over our heads. I then immediately lost sight of it and didn't see anything in the sky again until the parachutes opened.

The camera man is the rainbow parachute, and Rachel is the pink one. You can almost make out her funny little hat.

And touchdown!

 At this point, the parents announced "one child down, one more to go". And off went Ben, just in time for sunset.

This time, I was able to catch the moment of the jump!

So a long day of waiting turned out to be totally worth it, as both siblings made it back alive and thoroughly enjoyed a much awaited day of skydiving. It sounds as though they would both highly recommend skydiving here.