04 Wednesday Sep 2024
Posted in business, life, loss, moments, retirement, travel, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
beloved, big girl pants, blessed, floating, hot air balloon, memory, moments, remembering, time, weather, widow
ten years ago I was floating over Gatineau in a hot air balloon… along with dozens of other balloons;-)…
I’d been waiting over twenty years for this experience… for my fortieth my beloved bought us tickets to fly at home, but the company ran away with the money…
it was everything I imagined and a very special moment in my life… the memory continues to be bright;-)…
05 Sunday Sep 2021
Posted in business, family, life, moments, Photography, travel, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
balloons, big girl pants, blessed, flight, hot air balloon, memories, moments, weather, widow
woke up and watched half an hour of FMG balloons taking off from the Gatineau Airport…
brought back such wonderful memories… our first flight took five tries in 2013 but when we finally made it, it was spectacular…
that flight was from the grounds of the Festival…
in 2014, we made it the very first time and ended up taking off from the same airport as I watched the liftoff online…
the Festival happens on the September long weekend and I am hoping to make it there again… someday;-)…
05 Wednesday Sep 2018
Posted in family, food, health, life, loss, nature, Photography, technology, travel, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, Dow’s Lake, family, flight, heron, hot air balloon, memories, moments, text, trip, widow
woke up to a text from my daughter in Ottawa sending me some photos and video of a great blue heron…
I love them and she spotted this one while having her breakfast at Dows Lake before walking to her office…
a few minutes later I came across this memory on Facebook… two years ago we decided at the last minute to see if we could get a balloon flight… and we made it…
I had booked a trip a few years before just to be able to have an opportunity to fly in a hot air balloon… that time, it took five tries to actually get up into the air, so this was a treat…
lovely way to start the day…
04 Sunday Sep 2016
Posted in family, health, life, loss, nature, Photography, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, Farmers Market, flight, hot air balloon, Lansdowne, Ottawa Day 4, sky, spectacular, widow
really going to need to have a vacation when I get home…
today we were up and out of the house by 5 am… decided we would see if we could get a hot air balloon flight… if it didn’t work this morning then that was a sign that we weren’t meant to go…
by 6:30 we had a flight booked and were heading to the Gatineau Airport for lift off…
although the expectation was that we would go straight up and come right back down as the air was very still, we were up for an hour and a half and went to 3000 feet…
spectacular… this time when we got back to the Park, we all had Apple Cider together and got pictures with Annie, one of the pilots of La Magie de L’Air… what a great team they are… maybe next time we will take in the International Balloon Festival of Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu;-)…
then we headed to the Farmers Market at Landsdowne… lots of people there, most of whom seemed to be lined up for the bread…
we stopped at the Lindt store and Whole Foods for dinner supplies and headed home for a well deserved nap…
later we took a long list to IKEA and as we were leaving saw the balloons on their evening flight…
once home, we even saw a few as they floated through the air close by…
ended the day with a stunning light show…
31 Sunday Aug 2014
Posted in life, nature, Uncategorized
Tags
amphibious bus, Day 7, Gatineau, hot air balloon, Ottawa, weather
long night… just after we got into bed at 10:30 pm there was half an hour of fireworks from the Festival and we had a great view from the kids’ apartment… went to sleep to be woken up at 12:30 to a loud and furious storm filled with lightening, rain, and thunder… back to sleep for a couple of hours only to hear “Grandma, my stomach hurts”… after about half an hour went back to sleep… had to be shaken at 4:30 when the alarm went off…
headed over to Gatineau one more time to try and get our balloon ride…
this time they didn’t even have us sign the form because the ceiling was low and rain was expected… so we sat around till it was almost light, and took our picture in front of another balloon trailor…
took a taxi to ByWard Market where we had a lovely breakfast and checked out some of the Farmers’ Market, as the boys slept at the apartment…
once we got home we decided to take a tour of Ottawa on the Lady Dive, an amphibious bus…
home for a nap and did some laundry while the boys played racket ball… they headed off to a movie and we took another taxi to Gatineau…
we waited for about half an hour and once again it was a no go, sigh…
just made it into a taxi when the heavens opened and the rain came pouring down…
we were treated to a stunning rainbow with very bright colours… even the violet was visible…
tomorrow morning is our last opportunity for a flight as we leave Ottawa in the late afternoon…
we will see…
30 Saturday Aug 2014
Posted in life, nature, Uncategorized
Tags
bus, Day 6, Festival Montgolfier de Gatineau, games, Gatineau, hot air balloon, Ottawa, rides, taxi
well, the day did not turn out as hoped… we took a taxi at 4:45 am to the Festival Montgolfier de Gatineau, across the river… we got lost a few times but eventually arrived at the Hot Air Balloon site where we waited in the dark for a long time in a long line… we filled out forms and sat and waited for our flight… eventually, the sun rose and the sky was beautiful…
sadly this is as close as we got to the balloons…
it was too windy… we took a taxi home, slept for a bit and after lunch we all went back to the fair and spent some time on rides and playing games…
we shared some wonderful potatoes and then we went and waited for the evening balloon ride…
once again, this is how close we got to the balloon, still too windy…
we took a bus to the Museum of Civilization where we thought we would get another bus across the bridge to Ottawa and home… unfortunately that bus didn’t run in the evening, so we walked across the bridge and I got a nice shot of the Museum…
so, please send us nice weather vibes so we might get up in a balloon over the next couple of days, although the weather says it is going to rain tomorrow:-(… there are still three chances and then we head for home…
herbiggirlpants 