Sure, you could do the whole dinner-and-a-movie thing. But at some point, someone's going to wonder, "Isn't there something better to do? Something exciting?" Yes, and yes. Try taking to the skies with these "Perfect Date" suggestions.

TOTAL DATE TIME: 8 hours. TOTAL COST: $495 and up.

DINNER WITH A (RUNWAY) VIEW

Now that you've done the whole take-off-and-land thing, it's time to watch the big boys do it. Head west on the 91 Freeway to the Proud Bird, a 40-year-old restaurant with a prime location next to one of LAX's approach runways. With huge windows facing the tarmac, the 1940s-style eatery gives guests a front-row view of airplanes landing. The Bird's menu isn't especially daring - beef stroganoff, fish 'n' chips, spinach and artichoke dip, and the like - but the view of landing after landing is worth the trip. If the biplane ride wiped your wallet clean, the Proud Bird has a happy hour, from 4 to 7 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, featuring complimentary hors d'oeuvres and $2.50 house wines, domestic beers and margaritas.

>Cost: Dinner entrees range from about $19 to $37, and there's always happy hour, which can be as cheap as $5 for a couple of drinks.

>Information: www.theproudbird.com, (310) 670-3093.

HIGH-ALTITUDE KISS

Come on, you know you've always wanted to do it (if you haven't already). The Pacific Wheel on the Santa Monica Pier is as iconic to the coast as the Hollywood sign is to the hills. Voted "'s Best" by "Reader's Digest," the ride is also the world's first solar-powered Ferris wheel. (See that? You can be environmentally friendly, too.) Take the whirl nine stories into the sky for a panoramic view of the coast, complete with crashing waves and an ocean breeze that's cool enough to require cuddling. If you're lucky, you'll get a few extra minutes of scenic dangling at the top while riders disembark below. What then? Oh, you'll know what to do.

>Cost: $4.50 per person.

>Hours: Open until 11 p.m. on weeknights; 12:30 a.m. on weekends.

>Information: www.santamonicapier.org.

TAKE OFF!

It's a bit pricey - OK, a lot pricey. But the moment you climb into the two-person cockpit of this screaming yellow Waco biplane, operated out of Fullerton Airport by Skythrills, you'll no doubt be thinking something along the lines of ... "Wow." Gliding above the ocean with your hair blowing in the wind, squished beside your date, dive-bombing to catch a glimpse of whales and dolphins is nothing short of extraordinary. If you're brave (and can fit you, your date and two parachutes into the cockpit), pilot Mike Blackstone will take you on a few loops and rolls in the skies above the Palos Verdes Peninsula. And if going upside down in an airplane doesn't bring you and your date closer together (in mortal fear, at least), nothing will.

>Cost: $495 for the two of you.

>Information: www.skythrills.com, (866) 484-7455.