Completed: 02/02/2014
From first kite-flying experience
This is another one of my bucket list items that stems partially from having a deprived childhood. This activity just seems like a classic childhood activity, which I never got to experience in my younger years. Fast forward to high school trigonometry class. Our class project of the first semester was to build a bottle rocket and then advance to build a kite in the second semester. The bottle rocket experience left me with a lot of confidence (our group made a rocket flew the furthest). A kite seems deceptively simple, considering it's basically two sticks attached to a piece of paper and then attached to string. I was quite excited and thought there was nothing to it. But when it came to flight day, no one in my class was able to get their kite into the air. What a damper to our spirits.
The younger cousins showing kites with pride
In recent times, I did get to fly a kite for the first time. Jack had a fancy Beijing Olympics kite that connected a train of 50 miniature kites featuring each of the 5 mascots of those Olympics. On a windy day, we took the kite out to fly at a nearby elementary school in Kailua. Having the kites fly up in the air was quite fun, until we lost it. We were too ambitious and let the kite too high. Our string (which were pieces of shorter strings tied together) separated before we could reel the kite in, and so it flew away from us to the roof of a nearby shopping center. We were lucky to retrieve about half the kite, but the other half would forever rest atop the roof of that shopping area.
Successful kite-flying
For my Christmas gift, my good friend Tracyn, who helped me create a real bucket to keep track of my bucket list, gave me a kite-making kit. I was excited to put together the kite and let it fly. For the special occasion, Jack and I invited his cousins for lunch and kite-flying. After a delicious homemade nacho lunch, the kids got to decorate the kite that Tracyn bought for me. The kids had fun decorating with paints and permanent markers. After they came up with their masterpiece, I assembled it based on the simple instructions and we headed off to a nearby park to fly our creation. (Funny side story: one of the younger cousins got a superhero kite from Walmart. The mother waited until we reached our destination before assembling the kite. Unfortunately, as soon as the kids got out of the car, they somehow stepped right onto one of the joints and broke the kite. It did fly a little, but it was a sad kind of flying). After some time running around the park and flying the kites around, we headed home, mission accomplished.
Trail of kites flying high into the sky
