Best moment Sunday

We flew kites!

Some of you may know that in another lifetime Elaine and I were professional stunt kite flyers. We performed at festivals throughout the Midwest. We competed together as a pairs team and on three- four- and six-person teams, At our best, our pairs team Pegasus was ranked fourth in the country and our four-person team was sixth. For the first five years we were in Puerto Rico we traveled back to the States to perform.

After we stopped going back to perform, kite flying became a bit of a "that was then, this is now" thing. We pretty much stopped flying. So often we have ripping over-the-top winds (one of the reasons kite surfers love it here). Big winds combined with soft beach sand are hard on the body. Since we didn't need to practice for performances or competitions, and since we had other activities here, the was no compelling reason to keep flying. We let it go by the wayside. Honestly, I can't tell you the last time we flew. I think it was on my birthday in 2013.

Until Sunday.

I haven't written much about the Columbus Landing project along our coast in an area called Playuela. Columbus Landing is a proposed hotel-casino-condo-resort that will occupy 121 acres of pristine ocean-front and destroy about a mile coast, reefs and surf breaks. The project actually started in 1993 but was shut down.The project has been revived and some preliminary construction has actually started.

As part of the resistance against the project, protesters are organizing simple activities to attract people to the area and to show people first hand what will be lost if this project is allowed to continue.On Sunday it was a kite fly. Although we couldn't stay for most of the activity (had to oepn the bar and all that) we broke out a couple of stunt kites and put on a little show for the campers (who are part of the on-going protest) and the early arrivals.

Honestly, it felt really good to fly together again. Kite flying is what brought Elaine and me together in the first place. It was always one of our "together" activities. I've missed it. The area at Playuela has enough open space - and enough wind - to make a good place to fly. Maybe this is the start of getting back in to flying, at least a little bit.

I hope so.

(Thanks to our friend Angie for the bit of video.)