Well it has been a busy week. We really didn’t drop off the face of the planet. Indeed we have been very busy. Our daughter and her husband, Renee and Neil Tice arrived for Christmas. Not without some anxious moments, however. Neil got stranded in that airline fiasco in Columbus Ohio. He managed to get himself rerouted through San Diego and arrived at our son’s home direct from Ohio on Christmas Day. Renee and Neil stepped into the darndest kite factory you ever did see. Son, Glen, his wife, Barb and our three grandsons, Cody, Patrick and Bryce hosted the whole clan for Christmas vacation.
Gary and Glen got the brilliant idea a couple weeks ago to build stunt kites for each family. Now we just don’t go off half cocked when we start one of these projects. We researched the internet and found a place that allows you to design your own kite. Between the two of us we already have three stunt kites. These are two handled – two string kites that you can do stunts with. Loop-de-loops, roaring low level passes over the beach, dives and swoops and with a great deal of practice you can bring them in for a landing and then take off again. We studied these kites and chose the best features of each. We analyzed them with the kite program and then designed our own kite. We then conducted an art contest to develop the artistic design of the cloth the kite is made from. We voted and chose four designs from a dozen entries, and ordered carbon fiber spars, rip stop nylon and all kinds of special doohickeys from an online kite shop. For several days Gary and Glen used a hot knife to cut the nylon panels. We used seam tape to assemble them and then Judy and Renee sewed the panels together.
On Sunday we all piled into the SUV and drove to Carmel-by-the-Sea. We had a beautiful brisk wind out of the south, and we set up the first kite.With a flick of the wrists, Glen sent it roaring into the sky. After swooping and diving and twisting and turning all over the sky, we declared our kite a fantastic success; even beyond our wildest hopes. We all took turns flying the two kites we had completed.
I have included a couple photos of the inaugural flights in the travel section of our web site.
