8. Up, Up and Away...6/27/10

If you have never been up in a hot air balloon, I would strongly encourage you to do so. I can hear you now, you are saying you have a fear of heights ... seriously, you only go up about 1000 feet, and the views are so worth it. I had to get up at 3:30 in the morning in order to be ready to launch at 5:15, but it was SO worth it! We were given the opportunity to help set up the balloon before the launch, but I was much more interested in photographing it. After the balloon was inflated, we hiked ourselves into the basket and we were off. As I looked over to my left, I could see the sun rising as well as some balloons launching from the Festival of Balloons at Cook Park in Tigard. Looking over to my right, I could see the two balloons that had launched prior to ours. The view was absolutely stunning. As we began to ascend, our pilot took us up and down into the trees. Then, we were able to fly over the Willamette River, and as luck would have it, our skillful pilot was able to put us down right on the river. We were able to skim right along the top of the river, and as we ascended back up I was able to capture the reflection of our balloon in the river below us as well as the water dripping off the basket back into the river.

I have seen some breathtaking photographs of hot air balloon adventures, but I had no idea how incredible it was to experience it firsthand. We could not have asked for a better day for hot air ballooning. The sunrise was beautiful, as was the fog that was rising off the river. The ride lasted almost an hour and then came the time for landing. I was a little anxious about the landing, especially after you have to sign a waiver releasing Vista of any liability. I had nothing to worry about, the landing was almost as smooth as our trip across the top of the river. After our textbook landing, we were asked to help gather the balloon and prepare the craft for transport back to the field. When we had finished that, we were treated to a wonderful champagne breakfast on the very field we had earlier had taken off of. The morning was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G.













Vista Balloons, you rock!