30 before 30 continued!

Sorry for that delay, folks. I know you're all dying to find out about the rest of our trip so strap in cause we're going waaaaay up in the air.

FRIDAY
This was the big day. Why? Because somewhere in all our crazy planning we decided it would be a good idea to jump out of an airplane. No, I'm not joking you. We got a lot of 'are you guys crazy?' looks when we told people but honestly it wasn't that scary. The place was over in Shelton, WA (basically a small town in the middle of nowhere, which is perfect if you want to jump out of a plane but not so much if you need, say, food).
The shop was a rink-a-dink metal hanger with hard core looking jumper types lounging about, playing hackey sack and generally joking off. Probably the best place to work ever unless you love money:) We arrived, signed 2 tons of paperwork indemnifying the company from any injuries (yes, they even had a clause saying you can't sue them if you die, Dana checked). Then we suited up, me in fashionable purple, Dana is manly blue, and watched as another group stole our plane.

Okay, not really. But we were the second group to go so this is us (and their wives) watching them head off into the really tiny plane that I'm pretty sure we couldn't get Mom Kitchen into even if she was being chased by a swarm of bees.

After the other group jumped, we took a truck out to the landing site to meet up with our tandem experienced jumpers. Dana's guy. Umm...are those jeans? And is Dana wearing a collared shirt? We keep it classy no matter what.

In the plane. Yes my guy is in shorts. Don't you love our bullet helmets? 

I went first because Dana had a videographer capturing the whole magical event. We had two other guys with us, a father/son duo. The Dad has over 6,000 jumps. What!! The son was getting licensed so he has close to 100 jumps. They pulled the big door open and just stepped out like it was no big thang. I scooted on my butt in a much less graceful fashion and then sat on the edge for a second staring down at the earth thinking, well this was dumb. But...too late. AHHHH!!! Honestly, not scary once you jumped. It felt like the drop of a rollercoaster and then like you're getting hit by a thousand fans at the same time.

Dana's guy showing him the altimeter. Dana not paying attention:) Had to put this one in. Neither of us was paying attention when they pulled the chute so it was jarring to say the least

Here's me! My tandem guy told me to stand...I chose to sit. You'll find out why later.

The 'I'm so happy you aren't dead' hug. For me this was the 'I don't want to ruin your video but I'm gonna hurl in about a minute so make it snappy love of my life' hug.


What a rush! Honestly, it's impossible to describe how cool it was. Not scary one bit. Dana was so hyped up for the next hour. I was...less hyped. Unfortunately I let my tandem guy go a little wild on the loop de loops when we were free floating and paid for it later when I threw up most of breakfast on the gravel outside the building. The rest I threw up right outside of the car (Not the car, screams Dana!) when we stopped for lunch at a Panera in Olympia. Dana tried not to laugh and for the most part succeeded, but I was seriously pathetic. I will probably never jump again because of that but it really was worthwhile for the memory. And, hey, we survived! Dana actually liked it okay and said he'd go again if someone else wanted to experience it so check your calendars. Watch Dana's full video if you want the real experience. (For the record, no we didn't get to pick the music.)

 

After an unsuccessful attempt to feel better even at Panera, we threw in the towel, skipped black light mini-golf and went back to the hotel in Tacoma for me snooze for a few hours. Poor Dana was a trooper, suffering with nothing to do but watch the Ryder Cup. Man that guy has a rough life:) Thankfully, I was up and raring to go by 6ish so we headed back down to Olympia for dinner at Fujiyama, a hibachi style restaurant. Basically, you sit around a giant griddle and get dazzled by the skills of your chef, if you have a good one. We had a GREAT one! Making the rice. He did this cool trick where he tossed a raw egg in the air and cracked it right over his knife

Holy flaming tower of onion rings, batman!

 It was such fun. And because the Gailans know everyone, of course we sat next to a woman and her mother who are from a town called Montesano, right next to Aberdeen where Dana grew up. Yup, Dana figured out they knew about ten of the same people. So random. Welcome to my life with the Washington Gailans. We headed back to Tacoma in hunt of pie, but sadly no. Ah well, maybe the next day.

 

SATURDAY

Before



 

After

Let me explain. One of the funnier things on Dana's bucket list is a desire to have a really manly shaving experience at an authentic barber shop (yup, they had a red and blue striped barber pole and everything). In anticipation of this awesome event, Dana decided not to shave all week. The Before photo is what he looked like Saturday morning--pretty scruffy, not exactly my cup of tea. That all changed with one quick trip to the Supernova Barber shop for a very intense haircut, shave, and style by this guy:

First, yeah, we saw the tattoos. Second, if you look really close you can see his amazingly trim and long beard. Third, that's not Dana:) I know my hubby may have a baby face but c'mon guys that kids like 2. But otherwise this is the authentic experience he had. The floors were hard concrete, the men tattooed with serious beards. All very manly. Until they pulled out the hot towels and shaving lather but by then who cares about looking manly...ahhh...hot face towels...must fall asleep in chair...
Suffice it to say Dana LOVED his new look. The shave pulled a little because he let it grow so long so next time (yes, I said next time) he won't do that, but otherwise it was the epitome of manly pampering--hot face towel wrap, face massage, a sharp knife blade inching its way up your face:) The guy asked if he wanted to keep his mustache and he debated but wisely said no. I would have stepped in at that point. My guy is a clean cut type, thank you very much. He also really liked the haircut. He thinks it looks very Don Draper from Mad Men. I think it looks like George McFly from Back to the Future. Both could be good, right? Sadly for him the look requires an inordinate amount of pungent pomade to keep in place so the next day his hair relaxed back into it's usual casual D-child style (close one!). Now he's getting ideas for our boys...hmm...

 

Anyway, our next stop was the Tacoma Glass Museum which had a lot of cool sculptures and a workshop where they make art pieces all day long and then auction them off online to help support programs. This guy was working on a piece where you fuse a whole bunch of tubes of glass together and then shatter them. We're not sure what they did with the shards after that because we had to leave but it was probably awesome.

The best part of the museum was these guys. They have kids clinics for the local school where they can come draw creatures and then the artists will make it out of glass. Super funny.   

Lunch was pizza at the Rock Wood Fired Pizza Grill and then it was off to my favorite part of the trip--the zoo!! Yes, I know it's not a bucket list thing but I just love zoos and aquariums. The Tacoma zoo is actually amazing, probably the best I've ever been to. Here are some photos of the fun friends we made along the way.

Are you taller than a Polar Bear? Sorry babe...nope


These are Puffins. Really they were just disgusting molting birds but I liked them because of the movie Elf. Goodbye artic puffins...


We made it in time for a seal show. They can make some amazing noises



Okay, had to throw this one in. Can we all just say AWWWW together? This little guy was in a room full of stuffed animals and I swear when we walked up you couldn't tell which one was real. Then he lifted his head and me and about four other ladies just went awwww. (The guys were like, uh, yeah, cute, I guess.)

Finally, the day had to end so we headed back to for the night to try out the sauna and try not to laugh at the zombies. Oh, I didn't mention the zombies before? My bad. Apparently as luck would have it, I chose the one hotel in Tacoma hosting the 2012 Zombpocalypse, which bills itself as a preparedness conference to help you survive the inevitable zombie uprising. Uh...riiiiight. Totally. Zombies. Scary.

Really it was just an excuse for grownups to dress up as zombie brides and zombie bikers and steal our parking spots. Breakfast was interesting, to put it mildly. The best part was when we came down the elevator which is glass on the back so you have a view of the Tacoma done as you ride. I glanced down at the sidewalk and saw a guy dressed in black fatigues with SECURITY written on his vest sporting what looked like an AK-47. Dana pointed out the orange tip on the gun which I guess is the universal symbol for 'I'm a fake gun owned by a crazy person'. Anyway, it was funny to watch how seriously they take it. We got invited to come to a couple classes but politely declined:) So if that zombie uprising thing does happen don't come to our house because we are happily unprepared!

 

SUNDAY

We knew it had to end but it was still such a bummer to pack up and head out of Tacoma. We stopped at a church in Renton and because the Mormon world is just so hilariously small of course we sat by the Bishop's wife who just happened to be the Aunt of Dana's old visiting teaching family:) After church, we changed into jeans (is there anything more uncomfortable than changing out of a dress into jeans and then having to walk down the halls at church? I feel like I have to keep apologizing and explaining that we're on a road trip...honest...we're not bad people...). We stopped for lunch, picked up our art pieces and hit the road. I knew we were close to home when I could see the dirt ploomb hoovering below the mountains. But even with the smog (which has cleared up finally) we're always happy to get home. Hope you enjoyed the trip, babe and I hope you know what an amazing man you are and how many truly spectacular things you have done so far. I know we'll do so many more before the next big b-day.