If I had wings....

I updated my Facebook status today with the fact that I was watching the local Red Tailed Hawk catch the currents between two office buildings… and ended it with “I wish I could fly”… which is true. I’ve always thought it would be cool to at a moments notice be untethered by earth’s gravitational pull as all humans are.

As the day wears on, and I have occasion for my mind to wander, I’ve been pondering “where would I fly to?”. Is the flying more important than the destination? Assuming I wouldn’t have to fly to catch food, or evade being someone else’s source of food, it would be a pure pleasure thing (for all of my fellow Darwin fans, I know, if I didn’t need to fly, I wouldn’t be able to, but that’s another post, some other day).

Here are some places that I would travel to and alight, given the opportunity to spread my wings:

1) I know this is corny, but I would first fly to the top of the water tower at North Memorial Hospital. I grew up and still live in the neighborhood, and always imagined seeing the ‘hood from above. Be able to scope out what is in my neighbor’s privacy-fenced back yard, see the real curve of the streets, and the view of the nearby parks from above.

2) Catch the human-made thermals in Chicago, New York, San Francisco, Tokyo and other skyscraper-laden cities. Those that have ridden in the passenger seat of my car know that I like to “go fast”, even swerve through traffic for the fun of it – I could only imagine what it would be like to feel the thermals under my wings and bob and weave through the city without a flap.

3) Dive bomb the inevitable asshat yelling at his kids as he’s dragging them to a tourist destination that is “for their own good”. I believe that birds scare a lot more people than they are willing to admit. I know two friends who are deathly afraid of being bombed by birds….

4) Fly through the Grand Canyon and Yosemite Valley and marvel at the natural architecture. I love looking out the window of the plane when flying over the southwest – makes me want to be a geologist.

5) Sit on top of the Pyramids of Giza and gaze upon the desert that the pharohs once ruled…. And try to understand why they wanted to rule over a place with that much sand.

6) Dodge through the Fjords and arctic landscape of my ancestral home in Scandinavia. Try to understand why, aside from the weather, did they think that Minnesota was similar in geographic qualities?

Where would you fly to?