Tightrope Walking (verb): A stunt that you should perform only if you come from a long line of tightrope walkers.

Do you ever look up at tall trees, a couple of lamp posts, or some building downtown and think to yourself "I think I'll walk on a tightrope between those today"?

Yeah, me neither.

I've tried it before, albeit 2 feet from the ground, in High Park and it was not easy. Some Brazilian dude had it set up between two trees and left it open for others to try out.  I figured it couldn't be that hard since the the fear of falling from a high distance was eliminated.  Yeaaaah, no.  Finding the right balance was really difficult and even then when I thought I had it, I only managed to walk forward a couple of steps before I "eeped" and jumped off.

But this isn't about my amazing feat as a tightrope walker.  This is about The Flying Wallendas - a family circus act that has been performing highwire acts without a net for 7 generations.  And I had the chance to see them in action at the CNE, their first performance there since the 1950's (I didn't pay attention to exact dates because I was too busy biting my nails out of nervousness).

I'll let the photos do the talking.  And remember: There was no safety net. Nada. Nikto. Kein.  And some perspective: The guy doing the headstand and SITTING ON A CHAIR ON THE HIGHWIRE is the 60-some year old father...

The act was only 30 minutes long which was just fine by me because I was basically shitting bricks for the performers the entire time.  But it was AWESOME!