Up, Up & Away.....

Yesterday was The Boy's 41st Birthday - last year was meant to be the big one.  We had planned to go to New York and he mentioned that he would like to go in a hot air ballooon; unfortunately redundancy (his) and lack of work (mine) meant that we didn't have the pennies to stretch to it.  But this year good fortune (my lovely employer and my boss's decision to have a meeting in New York) and good timing (Virgin Balloons having room on a flight on his birthday) this years it's all coming to plan.....

We're off to NYC in September so more of that later but for now it's all about the Balloon flight.

After a nightmare journey from hell home on Thursday night (including parking on the M1 for nearly 3 hours at 11pm) and after 2.5 hours sleep I woke up The Boy just after 4am and gently told him we had to leave in an hour.....

We left at 5.15am, coffee flasks in hand, bacon butties wrapped in foil, and set off for Ripley Castle.  It was a quiet, still morning - not bright sunshine but clearing and misty in places.  We arrived at Ripley Castle (just North of Harrogate) and helped to inflate the balloon

The rise up was so smooth, and we were soon up and off 

it wasn't a very windy so we didn't travel very far butwere traveling at about 12 miles per hour and at one point were up at 3,600 ft above sea level.  You could see far and wide but my favourite bit was the clouds reflected in the lake.  Here's some pretty pictures: