Birthday Balloon Ride

May 31, 2009
Teresa bought us a hot air balloon ride for my birthday this year and it was spectacular. I have been wanting to go up in a balloon for some time and thought it was a very cool birthday present.

We arrived at the Airial Hot Air Balloon Company building at 6:00AM (30 minutes early) due to our previous experience at The Great Prosser Balloon Rally. I wanted to get pictures of them setting up... I didn't know they were going to wait until we all arrived before they got started. So, we went and got a coffee and enjoyed the morning. 6:30 (our appointed departure time) came and went. Not all of the people who had signed up for the mornings ride had showed. We waited until almost 7:00 when a lady and her son drove up with Starbucks in their hands! I don't know about the rest of you, but when I'm running late I am not going to drive through a Starbucks (regardless of how much I love coffee). At any rate, we took off for the launch point a couple of miles away around 7:00.

Our pilot gave us a full rundown on the history of hot air ballooning on the way and it was pretty fascinating.

After experimenting with unmanned balloons and flights with animals, the first tethered balloon flight with humans on board took place on October 19, 1783 with the scientist Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier, the manufacture manager, Jean-Baptiste Réveillon and Giroud de Villette, at the Folie Titon in Paris. The first free flight with human passengers was on November 21, 1783. King Louis XVI had originally decreed that condemned criminals would be the first pilots, but de Rozier, along with Marquis Francois d'Arlandes, successfully petitioned for the honor. [Wikipedia]

There were 5 of us in each of two balloons (including the pilot) and each balloon got a different ride. The other balloon pilot decided to stay rather low and follow a breeze back toward the Snohomish Airport. Ours decided to go up high and see if there was an airstream there. The other balloon meandered along and did make it to the airport, but never really got higher than a couple of hundred feet. Ours, on the other hand reached 4200 feet before the pilot determined there wasn't any moving air up there and it was too late to try and find a stream of air lower to the ground. We landed back in the same field we took off from.

The view from 4200 feet is tremendous. It was quiet, peaceful and breathtaking to be at that altitude without the roar of an airplane engine to distract you. Which reminds me, a small plane flew under us at one point and would have made an interesting picture, but I missed it. I would imagine that the unpredictable nature of hot air ballooning means that if we do it again we will have an entirely different experience. I think we might have to test that theory someday.