Happy Birthday to me!

What an awesome day! This had to be one of the best birthdays that I've had in a very long time.

For starters, my sister Maryann and her husband Bill, were here to help me celebrate! They usually come down the end of February, but this year moved their visit up a bit due to the fact that Jack will be born during their usual trip time. Since they wanted to be home for Jack when the time finally arrived, they made plans to be here for my birthday. That worked for me!

Our day started very early...up at 4:00am! Why so early? We had made plans to go on a hot air balloon ride and had to be at the starting point by 6:00am. What an outstanding experience that was!

We drove to a local hotel as our starting point. From there, they drove us to the take off point. That ended up being a huge orange grove in Clermont. Wow! We watched as they unrolled the balloons and connected them to the basket. First they filled them with cold air from huge industrial sized fans. Followed by adding the hot air...the fire torches were amazing. It's hard to imagine how they don't burn up the ropes and balloon, but they don't.


It wasn't too long before we had to climb inside the basket and prepare for take off! The baskets are sectioned off into 5 sections. There are two sections of either side and the middle section is where the pilot and hot air tanks are. They said they could fit up to 18 people plus the pilot in one of these baskets, but we had 14 people in ours and it was pretty packed. If there were more people, we'd have been packed like sardines.

Finally, the heat was going long enough that we began to float upward. It was amazing! You didn't even feel the basket moving at first...you just kind of noticed it happening.




There were a couple other balloons taking off about the same time as us so I was able to get some great shots of them as we took off. This all took place at sunrise so the setting was breathtaking. The morning fog wasn't really visible to the eye, but quite visible in some of the pictures. If you've never flown in a hot air balloon, I highly recommend it! It's like floating on air...literally.






My sister being a goof! Warming her hands in the fire...hahaha!









Our pilot, Damien, was a real hoot! He's from Ireland and had the neatest accent. He along with all the ground crew really made it quite a memorable experience.

Sunrise over Clermont Florida

This is our view of the other balloon as we took off.
Our higest altitude was about 500 feet. We floated up and down but never went over the 500 feet mark. The winds were perfect at that level to allow us to drift on the appropriate path to our landing site. We had a few brushes with the tops of a few pines, but for the most part, we cleared all obstacles in our way.

Some great aerial shots of the area. You've really gotta try this!

These cows were mooing about below.

More sunrise pictures


Our reflection over the retention pond.

Another treetop view
Looking down at the trees below

Maryann and Bill enjoying their view

The landing was the roughest part. You don't just land...you kind of hit ground and bounce a couple of times. It's a little on the rough side, but an exciting experience.

Yep, this sure was the best birthday ever! I can't wait until next year!