When we were kids, my sister Andrea always seemed to get the coolest gifts. An art desk, an adopt-a-dolphin, a membership in the World Wildlife Federation. My gifts were great, no complaints, but hers always seemed so creative. I was especially envious the year she got a half-hour plane ride in a Cessna with a pilot friend of my dad. That was before any of us had ever been on a plane before, and even though I’ve flown on commercial flights a million times since then, I’ve always had this dream of taking a ride on a little 2-3 passenger aircraft. Even though I’ve explored the idea and even entered contests to win rides like these, the right opportunity never came along.

Until last weekend when we were up north. The father and brother of the groom told us about the biplane ride they had taken only a few hours before the wedding. They showed us pictures and pronounced it to be “so awesome.” I looked at Brad with eager eyes. I wanted to take that plane ride! But we had spent too much money on this trip already, and we’re about to embark on some pretty expensive endeavors in the next couple months. How could we possibly justify $130 for 30 minutes of fun?

But it was a dream of mine, and if I’ve learned one thing from watching people pursue their dreams on reality tv for the last five years, it’s that you have to take advantage of opportunities given you or nothing will ever happen. Somebody was dangling this opportunity right in front of my face, a chance to fulfill a longtime wish, and all I had to do to make it happen was drive a half mile from our hotel and hand a guy a check. And when the father of the groom said, “You can’t think about the money. It’s so much fun and you’ll remember it forever and the money doesn’t matter,” I knew I’d be on the plane in the morning.

Brad and I got in a fight that night, and we weren’t really talking in the morning. It would have been so easy to say screw it, I don’t want to be buckled into a tiny biplane with you. Let’s just go home and save the money. And I think we almost did. But I knew this opportunity might never be so available and accessible again. We had to go, and so we did.

I’m scared of heights and Brad is a nervous flyer, but neither of us felt anything but safe and exhilirated the whole time. It was definitely worth $130 even though I don’t know how I’m eating this week. Or paying rent.

I’m so glad we did it. And I think I may try taking advantage of other opportunities thrown my way in the future. Turns out it’s pretty fun.

(See the whole photo set here.)