Flying the Seaplane

So today was the day to get some dual instruction in the seaplane!  I have been really looking forward to this all week.  I haven't flown a seaplane in probably 30 years so it was interesting to feel my way through the process again.  It is hard to explain how cool it is to push the throttle forward and feel the plane begin to gain speed as it pushes through the water, and then gets up on "the step" like a speedboat, and then finally lifts off and climbs away!  Beyond cool!  By the way, before you fly a floatplane, you need to pump out the floats to remove any water that might have leaked in.  I volunteered to do that today, just to feel like I was really the pilot. We flew around and did takeoffs and landings in three different bodies of water.  We flew over Bill Gates' home on the lake, and the Microsoft campus, and flew by the Space Needle again on final approach for the last landing.  A very cool flight.  Oh, and the good thing is that my instructor said I didn't do anything to scare her!