Up, up in the air

Monday Apr 23
Up at 4:00 am for a 45 minutes drive to the airport to meet our hot air balloon crew. Yes, we're going for a balloon ride.
Weird thing happened. When we pulled into the parking lot there was 1 other car there. We pulled up beside them and asked if they were going ballooning. They said "Yes". They said that this was their 3rd attempt. The other 2 times they were cancelled because of high winds. A few minutes later I heard the lady talking on the phone. Then suddenly they took off at top speed. Left the airport. We never saw them again. All the other people arrived but the couple didn't come back. Very strange.
Anyway, we loaded into a van with 10 other people and headed to the launch site. Little Red Dog was quite intrigued

by the inflation process.

And we have lift off. A beautiful feeling.











We floated over houses and desert. We even saw a jackrabbit running through the desert. It was so quiet and peaceful up there. We move with the wind so there is no wind sound. The only noise is the people in the basket talking and the sound of the burner heating up the air in the balloon. Little Red Dog really enjoyed the view, but got a little antsy when he saw the rabbit.

Pilot Craig was a great host.

We had a safe but bumpy landing. We bounce about 4 times before finally landing. On the first bounce Maryann wrenched her knee. Just when her right ankle was recovering from the stumble earlier this week, she hurt her left knee.
The crew was excellent! First thing we did was grab a champagne flute and toast the successful flight. The crew had breakfast of quiche, English muffins & fruit set up in record time.
At breakfast we met a young couple from Toronto who just got engaged. They came to Arizona to celebrate.

We were shuttled back to the airport then headed to Taliesin - Frank Lloyd Wrights architect school. We had made reservations so were guaranteed a tour this time. Taliesin means bright brow. FLW believed that you should not build on top of a hill, but in the brow of the hill so you blend in with nature.

It was quite an interesting tour. Frank Lloyd had some very interesting ideas about architecture. He used a lot of triangles and natural materials like rocks.
Not to stand still we next went to Desert Botanical Garden. Some types of cactus are an endangered species so they promote conservation. The botanical gardens have all kinds of weird and wonderful desert plants.

That saguaro cactus can grow to 60 feet tall and weight up to 4000 lbs.
Life span can be up to 200 years.
There is also a cool butterfly house here.
It was very hot. Mid 90's again. There are signs all over the place warning you to stay hydrated.







It's been a long day. Time to head back to the condo and cool off in the pool.