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Floating Celebration

Posted by Arwen Mosher in Just me on Saturday, August 04, 2012 10:00 AM

You know those once-in-a-lifetime experiences, when you get to do something you’ve always dreamed of doing and you know you’ll remember it for a long time?

Getting married was like that for me, and the births of my children, and bringing my twins home from the NICU. That’s first-tier stuff. But the experience I had on Wednesday falls firmly in the second tier of things that will stick as incredible memories.

I’ll turn thirty this month, and my husband and I will have our tenth anniversary. To celebrate we went on a hot air balloon ride.

Wow! It’s a “splurge” (as Bryan put it) but if you ever get the chance and you like this sort of thing, going up in a hot air balloon is an experience I highly recommend.

When I saw the size of the basket and realized we’d be traveling straight into the air in what amounts to a piece of wicker hanging from some air-filled fabric, I felt a tiny bit nervous. But hot air balloon flight is a gentle kind of flight. The balloonist we traveled with doesn’t fly unless the wind is under 12 miles per hour; it was between 5 and 10 miles per hour when we flew. The burner on the balloon heats the air inside to make the balloon rise, and the balloon sinks when the air cools naturally. There’s no apparatus to make it move horizontally; the wind just gently carries you along.

We went up quickly, right over some trees, and rode between 500 feet and 4000 feet of altitude during our hour-long trip. I’m not afraid of heights, but found it made my stomach clench to look straight down over the side of the basket. Instead, I preferred looking out, over, around at all the scenery - and there was plenty visible.

The evening was a bit hazy but we could still see thirty miles away on every side. It was fun spotting the skylines of distant cities, but my favorite part was the birds’ eye view of houses, schools, businesses, cars on the road. My favorite part of flying on airplanes is peering out the window during take-off and landing; this was like that, but in open-air with close-ups. So much fun.

It wouldn’t be good for people who are truly afraid of heights, I’m sure, as my husband (who’s borderline) said he had to remind himself a couple of times to relax and enjoy the ride. (Even though the trip was his idea!) For me it was pure joy. It certainly felt like a fitting way to celebrate the completion of my third decade.

*the photo is mine, one of the views from our balloon ride

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