Celebrating a 70th birthday is a huge milestone, and new Destin resident Janet Linden decided to make hers one for the memory books.
“I don’t know, when you turn 70 you start thinking of all the things you haven’t done yet,” said Linden. “I just started thinking about it and I thought, ‘I’m going to be 70, I better start getting these things done!’”
Linden said she began compiling a bucket list this year, and the first thing she chose to do was go parasailing on the Gulf.
“Most of my friends tell me I’m crazy, but that was just one of the things on my list,” said Linden, “As I’m driving home from the grocery store, I see them in the air, and I thought, ‘Why don’t I do that? I’m not afraid of heights, I love to be up high looking down. I love Destin, it is just so beautiful and I want to see it from the air.’”
So on her 70th birthday, July 3, Linden took to the water with her niece Terri Treahan to experience Destin from new heights.
“Once I got up that high, looking over the Destin coast, I could see my condo from the air,” she said of the adventure. “The thrill was that all of the sudden you are going up, and you don’t even notice you are going yet until you just think, ‘Oh I’m up!’”
From 500-feet in the air, Linden said she was glad she took the chance to try something new.
“It was probably one of the best things I’ve ever done and one of the best birthdays I’ve ever had,” Linden said. “It was more beautiful than I expected. There was no fear. It’s something I’ll do again.”
Now with parasailing checked off her list, Linden said she wants to keep the birthday adventures going.
“I want to do the skywalk at the Grand Canyon,” she said. “I’m going to do it before I’m 80. I can’t wait to do that.”