CalActive.com Activities Blog

So, you are trying to figure out exactly what you can do for father’s day this year. There are so many activities in southern California for you to do with Dad and possibly even the rest of the family. Let’s run through some ideas:

Boat Rentals - 65 Ft Yacht Charter
Southern California has some of the best weather in the country, and we expect this Sunday to be a beautiful day. How great would it be to round up the entire family and cruise along the beautiful SoCal coast? You can charter a 65 foot yacht from Newport Beach, CA.

Flying Lessons - Biplanes or Helicopters
This is for those that are a bit more daring. You can take dad on an experience of a lifetime. You can take lessons for flying either a biplane (like the ones used in the military dogfights) or a helicopter. The biplane flying lessons are out of Carlsbad and the helicopter flying lessons are out of Long Beach.

Fishing
You can never go wrong with a good fishing trip and California is well-known for it’s fishing along the coast. We have Newport Beach fishing and Dana Point fishing, and both offer trips that depart throughout the day. There are half-day, full-day, and all-night fishing trips as well. If you want to do something that is REALLY unique, you may want to go out with dad on a Kayak Fishing trip in Newport Beach, which is a unique and memorable experience.

Stock Car Racing
If you and dad have a need for speed, Stock car racing is the way to go. You would be driving a NASCAR stock car in one of the finest facilities in Southern California (minutes away from downtown Los Angeles). You have three options: 10 Lap Stock Car Race, 20 Lap Stock Car Race, 40 Lap Stock Car Race.

You can also get other ideas by visiting our website, www.calactive.com.

Feel free to post other cool ideas for things to do with dad this father’s day!

On Saturday, Heather and I went to our Military Flight Simulator activity in Southern California. First of all, when I left my house it was nearly 100 degrees. HOT AS CAN BE. So I was happy we were going to be inside in an air conditioned room.

When you first walk in to the location, there is a mural with a totally cool jet scene and three jet fighter seats. Take a look:

The mural:

The Jet Fighter Seats:

Heather sitting on the Jet Fighter Seat:

Our activity started at around 12:15pm. We walked to the back room and got into our flight suite. It was totally TOP GUN!

Heather and I in our suites:

After we were suited up, we were brought into a class room to learn everything we needed to know about flying a jet fighter plane. All I remember the teacher telling us is that we had a throttle, a button to load our missiles, a button to launch the missile, a button to shoot bullets (that are basically harmless unless you are 2 feet away, and ready to crash into, the other jet fighter), and a button to speak to our assistant back in the control center.

Learning how to fly:

Great, now that we know exactly how to fly a jet fighter (yeah, sure we do!), we are ready to jump into the cockpit of our Jet Fighters! It was so cool to jump in and really feel what it’s like to sit inside such a small area with complete control of this huge piece of machinery that can fly faster that the speed of sound. After I sit down, I hold on to the throttle on my left (which also has a button that works just like the Nextel/Sprint Push-to-Talk feature whenever you have something to say) and what looks exactly like an Atari joystick on the right. There is someone there to walk you through every step of the way as many times as needed to make sure you have a great time. While you are flying, back in the control deck, someone is on the headphones talking you through any problems or questions (they also give you more missiles when you run out, so don’t be shy, and ask for more!).

The Jet Fighters:

The Throttle:

The Joystick:

Getting more help:

Control Deck:

Check out the Missiles:

If there are guests that are not going to be flying, there is a great area right outside with 8 screens for the visitors to see all the action while it takes place (see below). There are also some simple rules, which are listed on the photo below, but no big deal.

Waiting Room:

The Rules:

This is really an amazingly fun activity that does not cost very much. You will not regret doing it! Oh yeah, and before I forget… Guess who won the dogfight?

Most Kills:

Sometimes fear stops us from doing some of the most exciting and adrenaline packed things in life. Ever since my friend passed along her copy of “One Month To Live: Thirty Days to a No-Regrets Life,” I treat everyday as the most important!

News or friends inform us about such stories that relate to life, and often make us wonder why things happen the way they do. For example, this morning there was a rare and freak shark attack in Solana Beach, San Diego. A 66 yr. old man in great shape was training for his next triathlon and was freakishly bitten by a shark and didn’t survive. And then I stumble upon a more uplifting story where a 96 yr. old former US Navy pilot took a trip to Knott’s Berry Farm so he could take in some excitement and ride the fastest rides there, regardless of being in a wheelchair.

His daughter mentioned that “He doesn’t get out at all, so sometimes I plan a day where we go out,” she said. “That morning, I told him, ‘If you get out of bed, I’ll buy you breakfast, and maybe we could take a ride up to Knott’s.’ He liked that idea.”

How I look at…we’re dealt with a deck of cards each day - you can play or pass. I’d rather play!

I definitely have the best friends in the world. When I moved to Laguna Beach from London as a newlywed, a few of them clubbed together and got us a helicopter trip over LA - can you think of a better gift?! It was such a great way to experience our new ‘homeland’ and to check out the area from the sky - Los Angeles is such a massive and sprawling city, it can be quite difficult to get your head around how it all fits together, so this was perfect. We flew from Long Beach and were up in the air for about an hour, flying over the Queen Mary and then up the coast past all the famous beaches that I’d heard about all my life (I nearly dislocated my neck whilst trying to see the bodybuilders at Venice Beach. Very disappointing), over Beverly Hills, Hollywood - I nearly peed my pants with excitement when I found myself eye-to-eye with the inimitable Hollywood sign - and then over downtown (where we flew so close to the skyscrapers that I could actually see in the windows on the 30th (?) floor and eyeball all the penpushers pretending to be working hard whilst looking at naughty pictures on the Internet)…then we were swooping along the freeways and over the crazy cement flyovers and bridges (I was flirting with cardiac arrest by this stage, as the pure scale of the metropolis that is LA was suddenly starting to sink in) and eventually back to Long Beach where we buzzed a container ship as we were heading back to the airport. Absolutely fantastic, an unforgettable experience. Thanks my darlings. Oh, and Woof, with regards to your comment (’Next time I want you to fly it. Get married again and we’ll organise the lessons. Get married AGAIN and we’ll buy you a chopper’) - I have no intentions of multiple matrimony, but I do happen to have found a fellow boarderwho also happens to Fly Her Own Helicopter, so if I do ever find myself going Elizabeth Taylor-stylie, I may have someone for you to pay for my lessons.

In my next life I am going to be a helicopter pilot. Respect to fellow boarder Chopperchick, who is living my dream (I live vicariously through her fantastic blog). I’ve been lucky enough to have done two helicopter trips in my short life (okay, not that short, but let me at least pretend): one over Cape Town and one over Los Angeles, and I absolutely loved them both. The Cape Town one was a few years back and was a breathtakingly scenic flight around the peninsula of the Western Cape with the opportunity to view both the unique wonder of Table Mountain as well as the World Heritage Site of Robben Island. I grew up in and around Cape Town and thought that I knew the Mother City (as she is affectionately called) and surrounds like the back of my hand, but seeing it from the air gives a totally unique perspective, one that I will never forget. It was brilliant! I’ll write about the Los Angeles helicopter trip in another blog but for now wanted to post these pics of the Cape Town trip. I found a video of someone doing a similar flight but be warned: it is really shaky and I ended up feeling sick – ironic that I didn’t experience any motion sickness whatsoever in the chopper, but that sitting here on terra firma, watching that video, I thought I was going to do a Jaeson-on-top-of-the-mountain stunt. The only thing that distracted me from thoughts of barfing was the look of pure terror on the face of the kid in the video. Perhaps I should start doing some helicopter flying lessons…