Up, Up, and Away!

On Saturday I woke up before the roosters to watch the balloons launch at the Vermont Balloon and Music Festival, one of the cool events that my buddy Steve Mease organizes for the Champlain Valley Exposition.

I spied Steve cruising around with a cup of coffee and after chatting for a moment he asked me if I wanted to take a ride on Piko, my favorite balloon. Yahoo! I know Piko well because I rode on him 2 years ago when I covered the festival for Vermont Magazine. Piko is from Quebec and his owners organize a giant balloon festival up north called the International Balloon Festival of Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu.

I am so lucky to have a friend like Steve. :-) You can check out some of the awesome events Steve is involved with and see some of his great photography HERE!

Enjoy the photos from my beautiful balloon ride...

Preparing Piko for the flight...
Here's Steve!
Steve took these next 2 photos of me and he very generously let me take them for the blog...
Can you see me up there snapping away?



Captain Denis...

Isn't Piko adorable?
Packing up quickly in the rain...
spectators...
how cute is this little guy?
Part of the tradition of landing is to share some bubbly with the land owners (at right) and the balloon passengers. Don't worry...it's sparkling cider.
Marie is part of Piko's flight crew. She chases Piko around to rescue him from fields. Here she is with the post flight bubbly...
Thanks again Steve!