I grew up in a small mountain town that sat high above the smoggy valley of San Bernardino. My town was often windy and wind is a real pain, believe me. It makes your allergies horrible, it blows dust and dirt into your contact lenses, it is not really fun. It does, however keep the smog away for the most part.
The best thing about a windy day, when I was a child was it was perfect kite flying weather.
When I was a kid, my grandmother would drive up a few times a year to the gorgeous mountain forest to visit from the smog and crime of Los Angeles.
I remember when she brought the kites. It was fall and my kite was red.
Our mountain town is on the eastern flank of the San Bernardino Mountains. If you drive just a few miles west, you reach the rim of the mountain and get a gorgeous view over the valley below. Sometimes you can see as far as Los Angeles seventy mile away and the tall skyscrapers. Sometimes, if the glare on the smog and haze is just right, you can see Catalina Island over one hundred miles away and boats on the Pacific Ocean.
From our vantage point high above the valley we have a great view, and once you get out on the rim the winds tear right through you. Some days this is perfect kite flying weather.
I’m so glad my family encouraged us kids to play outside, with kites or sleds on snowy days. I feel so blessed that I spent my summers outside, chasing squirrels and collecting acorns. (My friends and I liked to pretend we were indians.
In 2003 good friends of mine moved to Utah. It was fall when we went to the Salt Lake area to visit Sue and Adam. When they mentioned it was a great day to fly a kite, it brought me back to child hood memories of kite flying on the rim.
We drove from Layton, their suburb just outside of Salt Lake, to a awesome nature preserve called Antelope Island.
Sue and Adam had a awesome tiger kite. It took a bit of un tangling the tigers wings to get it going, but we finally succeeded and soon the tiger looked like it was running through a blue Utah sky.
It was such a gorgeous indian summer fall day for some kite flying.
Antelope Island is such a beautiful place. No antelope to be seen though, just angry buffalo.
Okay, they might be angry because tourist like us chase them with their SUV’s.
Yeah for a day of kite flying and a little touch of small town life.
