Monday, September 22, 2008

Hot air balloon ride

We've been waiting to do Shauna's first hot air balloon ride for a very long time and it was worth waiting to do it in one of the best places in the world. We'd like to thank you for the generous gifts of money we received for our wedding as this was an expensive activity and we've wanted to apply some of those segregated funds to some very special events which would produce eternal memories. Due to the high fixed expenses and a crew of over a dozen, there is no cheap way to fly in a hot air balloon but fortunately the price we paid was only double what it would cost in a high volume place like Orlando.

To catch the sunrise, we had to leave our lodge at 5am and it was an hour drive to the launch site. The balloon was already filled with cold air from high speed fans so it just required burning some propane to get enough hot air in for launch.


The burners do make a loud roar when fired but when they're not on, it's a beautiful silence as we were floating up and down across the landscape over an hour.





The landing was at higher than normal speed so we eventually tipped over onto the side but it was very gentle.

To finish off the ride, we were treated to a great breakfast spread and Champagne mimosas.


Thanks again to all of you who made this happen!!!! I loved floating in the hot air balloon and it's one of the most amazing things I've ever done. -Shauna

4 comments:

Unknown said...

That is awesome, I definitely want to ride a hot air balloon too!

Unknown said...

me too, with Li Li some time.

Jessica said...

oh wow, *envy* some day, I'll try this.

pawanm said...

Nice pics of y'all on the hot air balloon ride. I want to ride a balloon, too.