Beauty and Relaxation

4:30am Wednesday: Balloon Day. We got up very early, drank some coffee and headed out bundled in the many layers we had been instructed to wear by the balloon folks. We drove to the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta in the dark morning and met up with our flight crew and other balloon goers in the parking lot behind a Denny's-like restaurant; this was our launch pad. The morning was crisp and beautiful and as soon as we got there we could see the “Dawn Patrol” fanning out across the Sandia Mountains. These are the early morning scout balloons sent up by the festival to test the winds; no other balloons are allowed up in the dark and the Dawn Patrol is largely visible only when they fire their flames to lift higher. 

 

We signed some release forms about the potential for death and started getting ready with the crew. There were two balloons going up that morning and we were assigned to the “crew balloon,” the balloon that was taking the ground, or chase crew, up for their one ride during the festival. It was the cool balloon. Our pilot was named Dean and he seemed competent enough to get inside the huge picnic basket we would be riding in with four other men. Jason got to help fill the balloon with air, including holding it open while they shot huge ten foot flames right past him and into the side-lying balloon. This flame would later be directly above our heads. Similar to Jason's spicy ladder, Kate is on a program where she gets closer to a frightening, dangerous flame every day. On Tuesday she was the grill master over a scary open flame in our cooking class. Today she was asked to ride directly next to Dean, directly next to several huge tanks of liquid propane, and directly under a massive flame. It went well. 

The ride was beautiful. It was very slow and smooth and the view of the sky around us filled with hundreds of other balloons was beautiful. We spent some time flying low over a cottonwood forest and then dipped down not two feet above the Rio Grande; you could smell the water and mud as we passed above it. We also flew high above Albuquerque and had an amazing view of the surrounding mesas and mountains. The pilot has little control other than being able to catch different wind currents at different altitudes so we didn't have a huge choice of where to land. Rather than crash land into a petroglyph park, Dean chose a golf course. After landing he exclaimed “We made it. We defied death!” Seriously. The chase crew came to retrieve us and we headed back to our launch site for mimosas and pastries. It was only 10am!!

We headed to Pasqual's for brunch, as we had heard this was the absolute best meal to eat here (from Rocky Durham, no less). It did not disappoint. Jason had huevos rancheros and Kate had a similar dish but with sweet bananas, green peas, and feta. Also, the homemade english muffin was excellent; meticulously buttered from edge to edge.

We next headed to a Japanese Spa above Santa Fe called Ten Thousand Waves. You may see that we only have pictures of the spa entrance – this is because it is a nude spa. These are the shenanigans we are into on our trip. The spa had a lovely hot spring bath, multiple Koi ponds, sanas and many beautiful pathways through a pine forest. We relaxed in the hot spring for a bit and then got a great massage. It was delightfully peaceful.

After getting up so early and having quite a busy day, we once again used some local produce to cook a Thai dish for dinner and went to bed.