Ballooning with mom and brotherdearest
Saturday September 11, 2010

My brothers and I gave my mom a ballooning trip for her 60th birthday. Brotherdearest and I went with her (the other brother is a chicken:-p). We had a marvelous time. I made 375 pictures, here is a selection (33 photos made by me, three by mom and two by brotherdearest plus a map of the distance we flew;)


In the park, waiting for the balloonpeople


And there they are! (www.ballonvaren.com)


Brotherdearest is helping to lift the basket off the trailer.


Rolling out the balloon (It's a big one, the basket has room for 24 people plus a pilot)


The folded balloon in all its glory - photo by my mom (she likes weird angles...)


Those who are about to fly salute you \o/


Me in all my glory - photo by my mom
(see what I mean about the angles?)


Mom and I are keeping the basket stable while the balloon is being filled. - photo by brotherdearest


Brotherdearest making fun of us checking up on us.


Pilot Peter Kelder heating up the balloon


View from the basket; balloon is going up!


Remember: mom and I are INSIDE THE BASKET o_O
- photo by brotherdearest


Tadaah! All aboard!


And we're off \o/ (19.08)


Mom looking down on our town Zwolle.


Ooooooh. Aaaaaah. Gorgeous views.

And then we flew through the clowds at about 1 kilometer height. Very spectacular, especially on top of the clowds...

Look!


Isn't it beautiful?


Me up in the sky, weeeeeee:) - photo by my mom


We are so very high up in the sky:)


And the Netherlands is so neat.


*stares*


So much to see.


We are having a great time. Look at that flame (ignore brotherdearest's freakface;)


Such interesting patterns on the ground


Mom with and without light (and warmth!) of the flames in her neck (one of the things she enjoyed very much, she said it felt like a massage:)


Another beautiful view (There are a lot of pictures like this on my camera, every one of them glorious *g*)


Ooooh. (I sat down on my knees for this shot)

It's getting dark: time to land. But first we have to cross the overhead power lines....

We passed over those safely but what you can't see in the picture is the waterfilled ditch just before our landing spot...
Of course our brilliant pilot managed to fly across that as well and he put us on the ground without tipping over (a little wobble, but we stayed upright:)


Back on earth (20.18)


Bye balloon.


Very dark already, but you can still see how big that balloon was, right?


It took a while before we pushed all the air out of the balloon. It was a great bonding experience;)


Mom and brotherdearest helping to put the basket back on the trailer.


Cheers to a truely great experience.

Aviation law now makes us Baron and Baronesses from Zwolle to Alteveer. Bow before us, common people!


See, we got certificates to proof it:)

And this is our land:

That's about 35 kilometers \o/