After our surfing experience, I was all set for more adventure, and Gary's other planned activity for this trip was to take a glider ride. He'd been up in gliders a few times before; I never had but I had spent a fair amount of time in small planes, and I'd been parasailing once on a previous trip to Hawaii; gliding struck me as a bit of a combination of the two. I was kind of correct in terms of the sensation - fast and exciting on take off and getting up in the air (small plane), and quiet and peaceful while gliding and experiencing an unusual vantage point (parasailing). What I didn't anticipate was the fairly profound motion sickness I felt. The seat at the back of the glider was incredibly cramped, and that combined with the heat and the motion of the glider, which was just similar enough to being in the back of a car on a winding road, made me just a little nauseous. 
But it was an interesting thing to do, even if I'm not going to rush out to try it again real soon. Gliders are pretty incredible - even Shawn, our pilot seemed to be in awe of the idea of just riding the air currents without any power. The glider seemed like a really giant model airplane, and the fact that we were up about 1,200 feet, having been towed into the air connected to a plane by an ordinary nylon rope which might have otherwise been used as a clothesline, seemed both magical and a little idiotic. We had a nice view of the ocean and the hills though, and since I didn't get to the point of actually feeling sick enough to yak, it was all good.
