A Southern State Of Mind: Parasailing!

My original title was going to be "The Nightmares of Parasailing" but then I didnt want people to think that the actual event of parasailing was bad, because it wasnt. It was awesome! :D However, the build up to it was what felt like a nightmare.

Back when Krystal and Josh were planning on coming down, John and I purchased groupon deals for parasailing so we could all go while they were here. I didnt think to schedule it forever in advance and Memorial Day weekend was booked and we didnt get to go :(.

So we decided that it would be fun to go for our anniversary since we had gone on our honeymoon. I called about a week in advance to book it and they were booked up again. They didnt have anything open to groupon customers for about 2 months and only on a week day. Ridiculous! They should really put that on the groupon- "call 3 months in advance to book on a weekend". One of the groupons was going to expire, so the man on the phone let me go ahead and book it so we didnt lose out on the deal. However, it was booked for a month later. I also found out that they only allow a few grouponers a day to book a trip and the majority of their business is saved for other customers. Again, I feel like that should be on the groupon.

This past weekend we were finally able to go. The guy had given me instructions on the phone on what to do- you get bracelets at their office and then go over to the beach. So we parked in the deck we always park in and walked the 5 blocks to the office. We got our bracelets and then the guy gives us a map and tells us we need to drive up to 53rd (we were on 13th). Not a walkable distance. Ummmm, again, why didnt anyone tell us this in advance? So we walk the 5 blocks back to the care and then drive to 53rd. It took us about 30 minutes because traffic was bad.

When we got there we checked in and they said it would be about 15 minutes. 15 minutes later they told us that they were changing the chute and there was another group that had to go before us, so it would be about another 20 minutes. OK, so we hung out on the beach. We waited, and waited, and waited. After waiting a total of 2 hours to go up, it was our turn. 2 hours! they took forever to change the chute and then 2 groups went before us. We decided we were not going to be using them ever again. I know the chute thing wasnt their fault, but it was still frustrating.

When we finally went up it was actually a lot of fun. We took a banana boat out to the big boat and then switched with the people who had just gone up. We went with 2 other sets of people. John and I were first. They put harnesses on us and up we went. It all happened so fast. The skyline was beautiful and it was such a peaceful trip up. On the way down they dipped us in the water, which they didnt do on our honeymoon. It was fun! Then we watched the other people go up and then took the banana boat back to the shore. The side of the boat went under a little bit when we were close to shore and ended up knocking 3 of us off the boat and into the water. It was really funny and I actually enjoyed it. haha.

Overall, the actual parasailing was worth the pain...which is another reason I changed the title :D

Right before we got on the banana boat- its the yellow and blue thing behind me.