Have you ever been in a hot air balloon?

I grew up with this type of activity. My aunt makes hot air balloons for Minnesota, London Canada and Wisconsin. It is really a beautiful site when they are all going up for a festival :-)

No, but I really, really, really want to.

There aren’t any ballooning trips that don’t require you to wake up at 4AM, are there?

that… looks… fabulous

if only SC weren’t 10 hrs away

To answer your original question, no I haven’t—but I really hope to someday.
Hope you have a fantastic time!

@andrew – I know how you feel! That part kinda put me off, too. These at Freedom Weekend will all be sunset trips. Because of prevailing winds, balloons cannot fly during the day, but only at sunrise and sunset.

I have always wanted to ride in a hot air balloon and have not had the opportunity yet! I keep hoping too though.

@andrew: 4AM isn’t that bad, wuss. :)

I surprised my husband with a sunset hot air balloon ride and a night at a b&b for his 40th birthday. The hot air balloon ride was very pleasant – unlike the World War 2 biplaine ride I took him on for another birthday where the pilot did loop-de-loops! The funniest part of the balloon ride was when we landed in someone’s backyard in a development and all the neighborhood came out to stare at us. I felt like an alien from “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.” I have a little fear of heights but I did not find the balloon ride scarey because it was so slow and gentle. As I said, we went at sunset, not 4 a.m., and had champagne afterward; very civilized. This was near Hopewell, New Jersey. There is an annual balloon festival in Reddington, New Jersey that I would like to go to.

Not yet, but I have been skydiving and plan to try a hot air balloon ride in the next couple of years.

I’m not sure I’d actually want to go through with the experience, but I would love to have the memory of it.

It’s on my to-do list.

I haven’t done this yet but it is something that I’m looking forward to doing very much. Here in Phoenix, Arizona, hot air ballooning is done all year around (more so in Winter and Spring) and on my way home from work, I can often see hot air balloons rising in the north valley at about 6 in the morning.

@Jeruba – if you can get on the escalator at the mall or in a department store, you could very easily do the hot air balloon! It was quite similar. I have a little uneasiness about heights in open areas, but the balloon was soooo smooth, I never had any fear at all.

@VS, escalator, no problem, because there’s something under it. Elevators, well, I have nightmares about those, especially those accursed ones with the glass walls and especially-especially when they are on the outside of a building.

@Jeruba ~.~ but you can’t really see that there is nothing under you unless you lean over the rail and you most certainly are NOT going to do that…it really is worth the risk. The view of Sedona AZ at sunrise on a cripsy June morning just defies description but stunningly beautiful comes close. of course having a big ol’ crush on your aeropilot helps makes the trip enjoyable, too