Air Borne

Hot Air Ballooning,Del Mar,San Diego.

January 2009.It had been quite some time since I had been thinking about doing it.For some reason,it kept getting pushed.Finally me and one of my friends decided to do it.
We were pretty excited, at the same time a little apprehensive about it.Nobody we knew had tried it before.That in a way pushed me more to try it out.

Preparing For The Ride. We reached the pick up spot on time and met our fellow balloonists.There were 6 of us, me and my friend, a couple from Nebraska and another one from San Diego.The balloon pilot had to gauge the wind conditions and locate a ideal place for the balloon to take-off.After a quick briefing from the pilot,we were on our way to the take off spot.There were butterflies in our stomach.We knew it was going to be a very enriching experience yet the possibilty of injuring ourselves kept haunting us. After we reached the spot,the pilot and his assistants began inflating the balloon.The whole thing took less than 30 minutes.Before taking off, the pilot also briefed us on landing impact

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Up in the Air. The liftoff was smooth.As we slowly ascended into the sky and city underneath began to coverge,it was uplifting yet scary.There was hardly any noise from the balloon except when the pilot blew some hot air.The silence was amazing and the view breathtaking.I was trying to capture all the moments in the camera.We could hear the dogs barking in the house and people talking.We could see the sun preparing to slip away under the sea.We cruised to an altitude of 4000 feet,drifted over 12 miles in an hour before we started climbing down.Drifting over the apartments with people waving,starting at us, while landing on a open field was fun.

The End. The landing was as smooth as a feather.The pilot later told us that it was a 1/100 landing as the wind & weather conditions were perfect.We wrapped up the evening with the balloon history, a champagne toast and the ballonist's prayer:-

The winds have welcomed you with softness,
The sun has blessed you with his warm hands,
You have flown so high and so free,
That God has joined you in laughter,
And set you gently again,
Into the loving arms of Mother earth.

It has truly been an experience worth remembering.