Fly in a Hot Air Balloon

Fly in a Hot Air Balloon

October 12, 2013

Have you ever looked up at the sky on a beautiful clear morning to see lots of hot air balloons and thought, "How do I get to be that lucky guy"?

I have.

So, I decided it was time to be the lucky guy.

There are two companies in Calgary that provide this service (other than the realtor balloons, etc.) and I really liked the website for Rainbow Balloons.  They're a local family owned company that has been in business for about 34 years.

I called them at the beginning of September and scheduled the ride for Saturday October 12th.  They said that they would call me in the morning.  If the weather was good, I'd have an hour from the time they called to get to the Blackfoot Inn.

Luckily they called and said we were clear to fly. I phoned my dad, waking him up, and he picked me up about 45 minutes later.

 
We arrived at the Blackfoot Inn and they drove us over to the Glenmore Inn, which is where they start the tour.  There's a field just down from the hotel.  The other company (Sundance Balloons) was there as well.  




They unloaded the basket and the envelope (the balloon) and started filling it with air.  They filled it mostly with cold air first.  It took a while and was really neat to watch.  There were two other people flying with us: a young man and his dad.  Once we got into the basket, they blew the heat up into the balloon and we were off. 

Lifting up felt really smooth and comfortable.  The height of the basket walls was tall enough that there is almost no way you could fall out.  It felt completely safe.

We went south over the Glenmore Inn.  There was hardly any breeze, so we moved pretty slowly.  There was a perfect view of downtown and it was beautiful.  From that height, everything below us looked like tilt shift photography, which is amazing!

It was so calm... we slowly drifted over the hotel, then a field with a pond, over Riverdale & the Quarry Park shopping area.  We drifted over the river and got a good view of the bike path we had taken in June (see: Ride a bike from one end of Fish Creek to the other).  Parts of the path were still completely washed out from the floods in June.  Another reminder of how lucky we were to have done that before the water tore apart Calgary and so many of the paths that we needed.



The flight was about an hour and they had the van following us the whole time.  We landed in a park and the team deflated the balloon quickly and drove us back to the Blackfoot Inn.

When we arrived, they pulled out a table, crackers, cheese and champagne and we had ourselves a little champagne breakfast!

It was a surreal experience and one I'm really glad I was able to have with my dad.  I sure do love that guy!