skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Our Hot Air Balloon Ride...
Thankfully we didn't have to wait long for our hot air balloon ride, they were able to move us to the next day!
After arriving at the office we signed a lovely little waiver saying we understand things could go wrong, blah blah blah. The company Richard chose has never had an accident, but I suppose they make us fill out the forms just in case. We then waited around until everyone got there and they had everything ready to go. They sent up a few pilot balloons to verify what the wind was up to and then we headed off in the van to go to a launch site. 
Upon getting to the launch site that they were planning on using there was a little more wind then they wanted so we ended up getting back in the van and driving a couple fields away. After deciding that the launch site would work they rolled out the balloon and Richard and one of the other people going in our basket held onto the edges so that the fan could blow air in to get the balloon started. The chaser held a rope that goes from the top of the balloon and the captain ran around unrolling the balloon, he even ran under it at one point which looked rather amusing. Once the balloon was mostly filled the captain started blasting hot air in to get it to lift off the ground. When the balloon was floating we all climbed in, took a quick picture and then they untied us and off we went!
The view from the balloon is amazing! There are some very expensive looking houses in the Snohomish area with horse jumps and such, they were really neat looking from above. Funny enough we could hear what people are saying from the balloon even though we were about 2500 feet up at our highest. Someone offered us a beer, our captain yelled back that he would have to come back later, which then prompted a very surprised "They can hear us". We went over some flower fields, saw Bob's corn maze from above and got to watch the sunset from the air. I took pictures the whole way. I can only imagine how awesome it would be on a less hazy day. The haze really did cut down how far we could see, I know there are mountains out there but we could barely make out the outline of them. I hope to go on another hot air balloon ride on a clean air day as well! Haze or no haze, it was absolutely amazing! 
When it came time to land the winds weren't quite cooperating with us so instead of landing at the air field we ended up a little east of there. We were heading towards a field and the wind quit going all together so we just floated over a corn field for awhile, it was rather peaceful. We then went up again and came back down towards a motocross course. The captain found that the wind was going such that we could go back towards where he had wanted to land so we went back up again. We had a nice soft landing and then we just had to wait in the balloon until the chaser arrived. After the chaser arrived the captain pulled the valve out of the top of the balloon and it slowly floated down. We all climbed out and they proceeded to work on rolling up the balloon and shoved it back in a giant bag. By the time we left it was getting dark and the moon was rising. 
After the balloon ride we headed back to the place we started and had the traditional champagne toast that follows all balloon rides. The toast was followed by a spaghetti and meatball dinner with salad, watermelon and garlic bread. It was quite tasty. We sat around in the gazebo eating and chatting with the people who went up in the two balloons. One of the couples in our basket were from Indiana, they told us about this neat sounding City Museum in St. Louis, I want to go there sometime for our annual anniversary vacation. They then brought out a little cake for me with a hot air balloon on it, this completely caught me off guard, what a lovely surprise at the end of a lovely evening!
Thankfully we didn't have to wait long for our hot air balloon ride, they were able to move us to the next day!
After arriving at the office we signed a lovely little waiver saying we understand things could go wrong, blah blah blah. The company Richard chose has never had an accident, but I suppose they make us fill out the forms just in case. We then waited around until everyone got there and they had everything ready to go. They sent up a few pilot balloons to verify what the wind was up to and then we headed off in the van to go to a launch site. 
Upon getting to the launch site that they were planning on using there was a little more wind then they wanted so we ended up getting back in the van and driving a couple fields away. After deciding that the launch site would work they rolled out the balloon and Richard and one of the other people going in our basket held onto the edges so that the fan could blow air in to get the balloon started. The chaser held a rope that goes from the top of the balloon and the captain ran around unrolling the balloon, he even ran under it at one point which looked rather amusing. Once the balloon was mostly filled the captain started blasting hot air in to get it to lift off the ground. When the balloon was floating we all climbed in, took a quick picture and then they untied us and off we went!
The view from the balloon is amazing! There are some very expensive looking houses in the Snohomish area with horse jumps and such, they were really neat looking from above. Funny enough we could hear what people are saying from the balloon even though we were about 2500 feet up at our highest. Someone offered us a beer, our captain yelled back that he would have to come back later, which then prompted a very surprised "They can hear us". We went over some flower fields, saw Bob's corn maze from above and got to watch the sunset from the air. I took pictures the whole way. I can only imagine how awesome it would be on a less hazy day. The haze really did cut down how far we could see, I know there are mountains out there but we could barely make out the outline of them. I hope to go on another hot air balloon ride on a clean air day as well! Haze or no haze, it was absolutely amazing! 
When it came time to land the winds weren't quite cooperating with us so instead of landing at the air field we ended up a little east of there. We were heading towards a field and the wind quit going all together so we just floated over a corn field for awhile, it was rather peaceful. We then went up again and came back down towards a motocross course. The captain found that the wind was going such that we could go back towards where he had wanted to land so we went back up again. We had a nice soft landing and then we just had to wait in the balloon until the chaser arrived. After the chaser arrived the captain pulled the valve out of the top of the balloon and it slowly floated down. We all climbed out and they proceeded to work on rolling up the balloon and shoved it back in a giant bag. By the time we left it was getting dark and the moon was rising. 
After the balloon ride we headed back to the place we started and had the traditional champagne toast that follows all balloon rides. The toast was followed by a spaghetti and meatball dinner with salad, watermelon and garlic bread. It was quite tasty. We sat around in the gazebo eating and chatting with the people who went up in the two balloons. One of the couples in our basket were from Indiana, they told us about this neat sounding City Museum in St. Louis, I want to go there sometime for our annual anniversary vacation. They then brought out a little cake for me with a hot air balloon on it, this completely caught me off guard, what a lovely surprise at the end of a lovely evening! 
No comments:
Post a Comment