SO CLOSE ... BIRTHDAY SURPRISE ... TAKE #2

so last year j surprised n with a hot air balloon ride for her birthday ... how romantic ... and we were so close to going but a nasty cloud covered swooped right in and shut that down pretty quickly ... so we decided to wait until the spring/summer to go again ... i mean who really wants to go up in the freezing air in an open basket in the middle of an alberta winter anyways

well today was supposed to be that day ... checked the weather ... gorgeous sunny not a cloud in the sky ... so at 5:30 am we got the phone call giving us the go ahead to drag our sleepy selves down to the launch site ... well i will let the pictures do the talking

6:06 am ready with tickets to catch our ride across the cityscape

pulling into the launch site ...

see absolutely gorgeous

unloading the balloon ...

see the competition in the background ...

they arrived 30 minutes before we did

still setting up and off they go

balloon stretched out, basket attached and ready to inflate

an inflating rainbow

holding steady to fill with all that air

and it just keeps getting bigger

j plus n ready for a hot air balloon ride

i think we are good to go

nope ... a gust of wind swoops in and covers the basket and vehicle

go j ... keep holding on

(side note ... the 1 crew member was holding the rope and the wind pulled him down and he was sliding across the field holding onto the rope for dear life ... j stepped in and helped hold the balloon down ... my hero)

unhooking the balloon from the basket

one of the burners caught the balloon and ripped a gigantic hole ... so it's a no go :(

time to deflated the balloon and pack up and try again

cheers ~n

update ... so we tried 2 more times since and have been unsuccessful in our attempts ... first time the west end of the city had a huge rain storm that night and soaked the launch site and the second time it was too cloudy ... next try will be august 10 ... take #5