We got back from PA on a Monday evening. We picked up dinner on the way back to my apartment, and we spent a relaxing night in. I told K we needed to get to bed a bit early since we had an early morning the next day -- and that's all I told him. The next day was the big surprise I'd planned for K for our first anniversary -- the hot air balloon ride.
Our anniversary is Sept. 22, but I scheduled the balloon ride for the 16th so we'd have plenty of time to reschedule in case the weather was bad. The 16th actually wound up being the perfect day for the surprise for a reason I hadn't even thought of: Before K's R&R, the most time we'd spent together consecutively was 11 days. We had always said once we finally hit Day 12, we'd have to do something special to celebrate.
Sept. 16th was Day 12.
I woke up around 5:15 that morning. I had hardly slept because I was worried we'd oversleep and miss our balloon ride. I even had a dream that K's ex-fiance had taken K on a balloon ride, but he had never told me. In the dream, when he realized that was my surprise for him, he told me he had hated the ride and thought it was a waste of time. Needless to say, I was anxious to get on the road and finally have the surprise out in the open.
I let K sleep a little later while I got ready for the day. When he got up, I told him to dress for hiking -- wear tennis shoes, jeans, and layers on top. We left my apartment a little before 6.
We drove and drove, and finally around 6:45, we arrived at our destination: a bakery. I didn't know what to expect when we arrived -- would there be a balloon all ready for us to go, or would we go on to another place to take off?
Well, there was no balloon in the parking lot. There was a van with a large basket on the back of it, but no balloon. I hoped K wouldn't see the basket and figure everything out. Thank goodness, he didn't. (Additional benefit of a sunrise balloon ride: Your clueless passenger is too out of it to piece together what's going on.)
When we walked inside the bakery, a man and woman were standing, drinking coffee. They said my name, and I nodded. K and I went up and introduced ourselves. The woman was wearing a ball cap with a hot air balloon embroidered on it. Her sweatshirt had six hot air balloons on it, and her dangly earrings were actually in the shape of hot air balloons (I had to look at them for a few seconds before I realized what the were). Her husband wore a polo shirt advertising the balloon company.
The woman looked at K. "Are you excited? Are you ready?" she asked. K nodded. "Do you know what you're doing yet?"
"Not a clue," K answered quickly. We all laughed, and the woman started telling me where we'd go from there and what we'd do to set up. Several seconds later, K said, "Aaand now I see the shirts. ... Got it. I'm a little slow -- still not fully awake."
We headed out to the van, and we all rode out to a little airport nearby. The man and woman had explained to us that they were a little light on the crew, since it was a weekday, so they'd need our help preparing the balloon for our ride.
K and I were excited to get to help them prepare the balloon. The man and woman pulled it out of a huge canvas bag. We turned the basket on its side, and we laid the balloon, which was rolled up length-wise, in front of it. The woman told us the balloon was 7 stories tall. (Wow!)
We started slowly and carefully unrolling the balloon, making sure to pull it from the canvas seams instead of the actual balloon material. Then, we made sure it was completely spread out. The man put a fan at the bottom near the basket. He gave K and me each a pair of gloves and showed us how to step on the bottom part of the balloon and to grab the top so the air from the fan (once it was turned on) could get inside the balloon.
As K and I did our part at the bottom of the balloon, the man and woman went around to the top and continued to spread the balloon out. Pretty quickly, it began to fill with air. It was a cool morning to begin with, so having a huge fan blowing straight at me got a little cold, but it was really neat to watch the balloon fill up.
After several minutes, the man came back to the bottom end of the balloon and started using the burners. They had warned us that the burners would seem close, but that we wouldn't be in danger of getting burned by the flames. I had to keep reminding myself that as I stood just a couple feet away from the large flame and could easily feel the heat coming from it.
Very quickly, the balloon started rising, and the basket started slowly raising along with it. The woman ran to where K and I were standing and told us to put all of our weight against the edge of the basket to keep it in place. Her husband had climbed inside to continue prepping the balloon, so K, the woman and I were all leaning against the balloon as it slowly tipped upright.
All of a sudden, they were telling me to get into the balloon. Quickly and clumsily, I hurled myself into the balloon. K was right behind me. Then, before I knew it, we were several yards into the air and climbing quickly.
It was then that it occurred to me to be scared. I had realized that we were basically in a giant basket. "You kind of have to have a lot of faith in wicker to do this," I said to our pilot.
He reassured me that we were standing on an actual floor sandwiched between all that wicker -- not to mention the fact there were cables from equipment in the balloon that ran across as well. We were safe, he promised. We weren't tipping or rocking, and the giant basket we stood in came above my waist.
I looked around at the gorgeous view of the sunrise and the open countryside, and I forgot about being scared and began to just enjoy the ride. It was peaceful up there.
We could see for miles and miles in every direction. There we were, just enjoying the views around us, while the world below us went on about its business.
Around the homes below us, people were taking out trash, taking dogs outside, walking to their cars. Many of them waved at us, and we always waved back. Our pilot told us to be careful what we said in the balloon: "They can try to talk to us up here, but we'll never hear them. But they can hear everything you say up here clear as a bell."
It was funny to see the reactions different animals had to us. Dogs would run and bark, determined to try to find a way to catch us. Cows would look around them, but never up. Horses did look toward us. All the animals, though, tended to try to run from us (maybe the sound of the burner scared them?).
So much about a balloon ride is dependent upon the weather. The amount of wind determines how far you're able to travel. Several times, our pilot mentioned how perfect the weather was for our ride. It was calm, but there was a light breeze that allowed us to simply float along peacefully. The temperature was comfortable. It was a beautiful, clear day.
We got pretty high up a few times, and others, we were gliding along just a few feet above the treetops. We lucked out when we flew over a lake. The pilot lowered us to just above the water so I could get a picture of the balloon's reflection in the pond below us.
The ride lasted about an hour. We wound up landing in an area the pilot sometimes uses to take off. Since you can't really know where you'll land when you take off, there's a chase crew that follows the balloon on the ground. Our chase crew was our pilot's wife in the van we rode in. We had a two-way radio in our balloon that the man used to talk to his wife to help her follow us on the ground.
To land the balloon, our pilot did what he called "walking the balloon" so he could get us to a certain area of the field we were landing in. We got very close to the ground and actually touched a few times. In fact, we landed several times before we actually landed. Some of the landings were very smooth -- we simply touched down to the ground for a few seconds -- while others were rough, feeling almost like the balloon would tip over.
Once we were in the general area where our pilot wanted to really land, he put us down for good. This one wasn't as good of a landing, and almost in slow motion, the balloon slowly tipped more and more to the side. I wasn't sure if it was going to balance itself out and fall flat again, but I leaned back and back, trying to keep my arms in the balloon like they'd told us to do in case the balloon landed on its side.
Sure enough, it completely tipped over. Our pilot and his wife had also told us not to climb out of the balloon until they told us to, since it would still be very much inflated, and the only thing keeping it on the ground would be the weight of those of us inside. It was only a few seconds before the pilot told me to get out. I crawled out of the balloon, and K was out behind me a few seconds later. The balloon deflated pretty quickly.
K and I helped the pilot and his wife push all the air out of the balloon and roll it back up. I put Velcro straps on it every few feet as our pilot, his wife and K all gathered it back into the humongous canvas bag. They put the basket back onto the back of the van, and we all piled in and headed off to a park for the celebratory champagne toast that traditionally follows a hot air balloon ride. On the way there, our pilot told us we had traveled over 15 miles in the balloon! He and his wife kept talking about how perfect the weather was for a balloon ride.
When we got to the park, we sat down in a gazebo, where our pilot and his wife poured us mimosas in keepsake champagne glasses with "First Flight" and a hot air balloon etched into the glass.
They told us the history of hot air balloons, and they gave us certificates with our names, balloon number and a photo of the balloon on them. I reminded K that the traditional first anniversary gift is paper, so our little certificates were the perfect way to remember the ride.
We stayed and talked awhile longer as our pilot and his wife, who have both been balloon pilots for many years, told us all kinds of stories of their own and from friends in ballooning. Some of the stories were (thankfully and purposefully) specifically not told to us until after the balloon ride, but it was nice to just relax, enjoy mimosas and talk about our neat experience while the rest of the city was rushing around to begin the day.
When we got back in my car to head home again, K told me he had actually always wanted to go on a hot air balloon ride. We had both loved it. It was definitely a neat way to celebrate our first wedding anniversary -- and it was a memorable, perfect way to celebrate finally reaching Day 12.
Our anniversary is Sept. 22, but I scheduled the balloon ride for the 16th so we'd have plenty of time to reschedule in case the weather was bad. The 16th actually wound up being the perfect day for the surprise for a reason I hadn't even thought of: Before K's R&R, the most time we'd spent together consecutively was 11 days. We had always said once we finally hit Day 12, we'd have to do something special to celebrate.
Sept. 16th was Day 12.
I woke up around 5:15 that morning. I had hardly slept because I was worried we'd oversleep and miss our balloon ride. I even had a dream that K's ex-fiance had taken K on a balloon ride, but he had never told me. In the dream, when he realized that was my surprise for him, he told me he had hated the ride and thought it was a waste of time. Needless to say, I was anxious to get on the road and finally have the surprise out in the open.
I let K sleep a little later while I got ready for the day. When he got up, I told him to dress for hiking -- wear tennis shoes, jeans, and layers on top. We left my apartment a little before 6.
We drove and drove, and finally around 6:45, we arrived at our destination: a bakery. I didn't know what to expect when we arrived -- would there be a balloon all ready for us to go, or would we go on to another place to take off?
Well, there was no balloon in the parking lot. There was a van with a large basket on the back of it, but no balloon. I hoped K wouldn't see the basket and figure everything out. Thank goodness, he didn't. (Additional benefit of a sunrise balloon ride: Your clueless passenger is too out of it to piece together what's going on.)
When we walked inside the bakery, a man and woman were standing, drinking coffee. They said my name, and I nodded. K and I went up and introduced ourselves. The woman was wearing a ball cap with a hot air balloon embroidered on it. Her sweatshirt had six hot air balloons on it, and her dangly earrings were actually in the shape of hot air balloons (I had to look at them for a few seconds before I realized what the were). Her husband wore a polo shirt advertising the balloon company.
The woman looked at K. "Are you excited? Are you ready?" she asked. K nodded. "Do you know what you're doing yet?"
"Not a clue," K answered quickly. We all laughed, and the woman started telling me where we'd go from there and what we'd do to set up. Several seconds later, K said, "Aaand now I see the shirts. ... Got it. I'm a little slow -- still not fully awake."
We headed out to the van, and we all rode out to a little airport nearby. The man and woman had explained to us that they were a little light on the crew, since it was a weekday, so they'd need our help preparing the balloon for our ride.
K and I were excited to get to help them prepare the balloon. The man and woman pulled it out of a huge canvas bag. We turned the basket on its side, and we laid the balloon, which was rolled up length-wise, in front of it. The woman told us the balloon was 7 stories tall. (Wow!)
We started slowly and carefully unrolling the balloon, making sure to pull it from the canvas seams instead of the actual balloon material. Then, we made sure it was completely spread out. The man put a fan at the bottom near the basket. He gave K and me each a pair of gloves and showed us how to step on the bottom part of the balloon and to grab the top so the air from the fan (once it was turned on) could get inside the balloon.
As K and I did our part at the bottom of the balloon, the man and woman went around to the top and continued to spread the balloon out. Pretty quickly, it began to fill with air. It was a cool morning to begin with, so having a huge fan blowing straight at me got a little cold, but it was really neat to watch the balloon fill up.
After several minutes, the man came back to the bottom end of the balloon and started using the burners. They had warned us that the burners would seem close, but that we wouldn't be in danger of getting burned by the flames. I had to keep reminding myself that as I stood just a couple feet away from the large flame and could easily feel the heat coming from it.
Very quickly, the balloon started rising, and the basket started slowly raising along with it. The woman ran to where K and I were standing and told us to put all of our weight against the edge of the basket to keep it in place. Her husband had climbed inside to continue prepping the balloon, so K, the woman and I were all leaning against the balloon as it slowly tipped upright.
All of a sudden, they were telling me to get into the balloon. Quickly and clumsily, I hurled myself into the balloon. K was right behind me. Then, before I knew it, we were several yards into the air and climbing quickly.
It was then that it occurred to me to be scared. I had realized that we were basically in a giant basket. "You kind of have to have a lot of faith in wicker to do this," I said to our pilot.
He reassured me that we were standing on an actual floor sandwiched between all that wicker -- not to mention the fact there were cables from equipment in the balloon that ran across as well. We were safe, he promised. We weren't tipping or rocking, and the giant basket we stood in came above my waist.
I looked around at the gorgeous view of the sunrise and the open countryside, and I forgot about being scared and began to just enjoy the ride. It was peaceful up there.
We could see for miles and miles in every direction. There we were, just enjoying the views around us, while the world below us went on about its business.
Around the homes below us, people were taking out trash, taking dogs outside, walking to their cars. Many of them waved at us, and we always waved back. Our pilot told us to be careful what we said in the balloon: "They can try to talk to us up here, but we'll never hear them. But they can hear everything you say up here clear as a bell."
It was funny to see the reactions different animals had to us. Dogs would run and bark, determined to try to find a way to catch us. Cows would look around them, but never up. Horses did look toward us. All the animals, though, tended to try to run from us (maybe the sound of the burner scared them?).
So much about a balloon ride is dependent upon the weather. The amount of wind determines how far you're able to travel. Several times, our pilot mentioned how perfect the weather was for our ride. It was calm, but there was a light breeze that allowed us to simply float along peacefully. The temperature was comfortable. It was a beautiful, clear day.
We got pretty high up a few times, and others, we were gliding along just a few feet above the treetops. We lucked out when we flew over a lake. The pilot lowered us to just above the water so I could get a picture of the balloon's reflection in the pond below us.
The ride lasted about an hour. We wound up landing in an area the pilot sometimes uses to take off. Since you can't really know where you'll land when you take off, there's a chase crew that follows the balloon on the ground. Our chase crew was our pilot's wife in the van we rode in. We had a two-way radio in our balloon that the man used to talk to his wife to help her follow us on the ground.
To land the balloon, our pilot did what he called "walking the balloon" so he could get us to a certain area of the field we were landing in. We got very close to the ground and actually touched a few times. In fact, we landed several times before we actually landed. Some of the landings were very smooth -- we simply touched down to the ground for a few seconds -- while others were rough, feeling almost like the balloon would tip over.
Once we were in the general area where our pilot wanted to really land, he put us down for good. This one wasn't as good of a landing, and almost in slow motion, the balloon slowly tipped more and more to the side. I wasn't sure if it was going to balance itself out and fall flat again, but I leaned back and back, trying to keep my arms in the balloon like they'd told us to do in case the balloon landed on its side.
Sure enough, it completely tipped over. Our pilot and his wife had also told us not to climb out of the balloon until they told us to, since it would still be very much inflated, and the only thing keeping it on the ground would be the weight of those of us inside. It was only a few seconds before the pilot told me to get out. I crawled out of the balloon, and K was out behind me a few seconds later. The balloon deflated pretty quickly.
K and I helped the pilot and his wife push all the air out of the balloon and roll it back up. I put Velcro straps on it every few feet as our pilot, his wife and K all gathered it back into the humongous canvas bag. They put the basket back onto the back of the van, and we all piled in and headed off to a park for the celebratory champagne toast that traditionally follows a hot air balloon ride. On the way there, our pilot told us we had traveled over 15 miles in the balloon! He and his wife kept talking about how perfect the weather was for a balloon ride.
When we got to the park, we sat down in a gazebo, where our pilot and his wife poured us mimosas in keepsake champagne glasses with "First Flight" and a hot air balloon etched into the glass.
They told us the history of hot air balloons, and they gave us certificates with our names, balloon number and a photo of the balloon on them. I reminded K that the traditional first anniversary gift is paper, so our little certificates were the perfect way to remember the ride.
We stayed and talked awhile longer as our pilot and his wife, who have both been balloon pilots for many years, told us all kinds of stories of their own and from friends in ballooning. Some of the stories were (thankfully and purposefully) specifically not told to us until after the balloon ride, but it was nice to just relax, enjoy mimosas and talk about our neat experience while the rest of the city was rushing around to begin the day.
When we got back in my car to head home again, K told me he had actually always wanted to go on a hot air balloon ride. We had both loved it. It was definitely a neat way to celebrate our first wedding anniversary -- and it was a memorable, perfect way to celebrate finally reaching Day 12.
3 comments:
So sweet! I would have been scared in that balloon too! I'm sure it was a great experience though.
Yay! What a perfect first year wedding anniversary.
You and K are so damn cute. Love the pictures!
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