Skydiving Over the Lompoc Valley

Tandem skydiving runs out of Lompoc Airport, which means the view on the way down is the one you already know from the ground — the valley, the flower fields, the coastline, and on a clear day the Channel Islands sitting out on the horizon. First-timers jump strapped to an instructor after a short briefing, so there's no course to complete beforehand. It's the most expensive thing on this list by a distance, and the one people talk about for years. It's also the strangest fact about our town's small airport: you can drive past it every day for a decade and never know people are stepping out of planes above it.