For the most part, the tourists seemed to ignore us, at least in all the places we flew beside AA. The most common reaction was a flinch when we'd float kites a few feet over them or move the kite in a hover along beside them as they walked. Big smiles became very important to try to let the guests know that, really, we *did* see them, were watching out for them, and were merely demonstrating our control over our kites. Occasionally you'd get smiles, and maybe a couple of times a day, someone would come up to ask you about the kites, ask if we were selling them/where they could buy them. Even less frequently, you'd meet another kiter, someone who would ask about the kinds of kites you were flying.
There were a few standouts -- the woman who watched as I flew to the Yanni piece at the Dancing Fountain, and actually understood that I was flying *to* the music...and applauded when I landed the kite to the last note of the piece. The family, parents and two young kids (ages maybe 1 1/2 and 3) who stopped and let me land the kites practically on their children so they could touch the kites. The kids loved it.
On the other hand, there were lots of frustrating comments. The Disney employee pushing a Coke cart who called out, "That's pretty easy, isn't it?" I explained to him that the folks who were flying on the sidewalks had all been flying for at least two years, and most of us had been flying for substantially longer.
Then there was the woman who saw the kite fall out of the air when a strange gust of wind hit it from the side and told me, "Keep it up, you'll get the hang of it, darling."
Another fellow, who I can't really complain about because he was trying to get his kid excited about the kites, said something to his kid on the lines of, "Wow, that looks hard! I bet it would take 10 days to learn to do that!"
Dave had somebody say something along the lines of, "That's not very hard, is it?" When Dave replied that it actually took a lot of skill and practice, the person pointed to little Alex Mason and said, "How hard could it be? That little boy is doing it." Never mind that that little boy has been flying kites for more than half his life!
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