The Height of Love?

On the ride from the airport to the hotel on day one of our honeymoon, Robert and I saw a parasail and I immediately said, “Oooooh, let’s do that!” And I got the look. The look that said “my size 9.5s are completely happy firmly planted on the ground”. The look that I’ve come to know and love. The look that I know, with a little persuasion, can turn into the “I didn’t want to do this but I’m sure glad I did” look. I was, from that moment on, a woman on a mission. J

And on day 3, Robert said, “Let’s give that parasailing thing a try.” It seemed almost like it was his idea. And so, we called our handy dandy concierge desk and within a few moments, it was all set up. And off, or shall I say UP, we went…

From our hotel, we walked to the resort next door to wait for the boat. We were a little early so we found a romantic little spot on a bench on the covered pier to just relax for a minute. Our pleasant moments of watching the waves roll in and the breeze blow by was rudely interrupted by a pigeon in the rafters who decided to make his presence known. I don’t know about you, but pigeon “presence” running down your arm does not for a romantic moment make. While I made quick business of getting the goo off my arm, Robert was busy trying to decide if he should be horrified or if it was OK to laugh. All was well that ended well… and two days later, when we saw this sign, we decided we weren’t the only ones on the island to get a less-than-friendly welcome from the feathered friends.

But, back to the good part of the story….

We hopped on the boat and took off on our parasailing adventure. And up, up, up we went. Robert had a deathgrip on the ropes and kept telling me there were only two tiny metal clips holding him in the harness. I, on the other hand, felt completely secure and thought parasailing was fantastic. I told Robert to pretend he was a butterfly floating on a breeze. Again with the look. On second thought, maybe that was a pretty bad analogy; he quickly told me he’d rather be a wasp or a honeybee. I guess if you’ve got to pretend to be an insect, a wasp is a pretty manly one J. In a few minutes, Robert’s anxiety subsided and he decided parasailing was fun.

We floated high (very high) above Key West and the views of the beaches and the city were amazing! Our Captain lowered us down into the water for a quick and cool dip in the ocean before lifting us up again and then lowering us back to the boat.

And, before we knew it, our parasailing adventure was over but we did get to speed along in the boat while several other pairs of sailers took to the skies. I think of the two, Robert preferred the speedboating to the parasailing but that’s OK; they were both fun!!

From our parasailing adventure, Robert and I learned yet again that no matter what we do, we have fun together and no matter how nervous one of us might be, if the other is there, it’s going to be OK. I think I fell in love with him all over again just for his willingness to set aside his apprehension and help me mark something off my bucket list. And, just in case you wondered… the height of love is 350 feet off the ground, strapped to a parachute, and held into a harness by two clips and a belt buckle. J