Up, up and away!

It seems that the older I get, the more weird things I learn about my father. Like, for instance, that he wants to own a hot air balloon. For real. The funny thing is, until about 3 weeks ago, he had never even been IN one. I decided to change that.

Since you can only buy a man so many socks, undershirts, shovels, bagel slicers and grill scrubbers, I decided to get a little something different for his birthday this year. And, as my luck would have it, Groupon offered a hot air balloon ride just a few weeks before his birthday. I snatched two up and was giddy as a schoolgirl to share such a sweet adventure with my Dad.

We wanted to do a sunrise flight. Fun fact: sunrise flights with Michigan's relatively unpredictable weather  patterns are hard to come by. We ended up rescheduling four times until July 2, when we were finally able to take flight. Turns out, we were actually pretty lucky. Others in our group that day had been waiting over a year to get a good weather day. It was so worth the wait.

Ready for takeoff!

The basket. Ours held 15 people total.
4 each in the top L and R quadrants, and 3 each  in the lower L and R quads. The pilot goes in the center.
Dad and I were in the lower left quad.
I know, it's intimidatingly small.

Cool shadow shot.

Another balloon flew with us.
Also, I guess it's rare to have clouds on a sunrise flight,

so that was cool!

Enjoying the view.
Or holding on for dear life,

whichever you prefer.

Cool reflection shot.

Safely back on the ground!

The whole experience could not have been more perfect, and it was awesome to experience it with my Dad. You know, since his other option would have been to take my Mom, who would have likely passed out at liftoff due to a serious fear of heights.

Oh, and for what it's worth, the old man no longer has a desire to own a balloon. Turns out they're much more work than he thought.