Wednesday, June 17, 2009

The Big Orange Balloon

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If you are ever in Orange County and looking for something free and fun to do than check out the Great Park Balloon. It is located in the future location of the Orange County Great Park in Irvine. The Great Park is currently being built on the land of the former El Toro Marine Corps Air Station and when it is finished it will be 1300 acres of gardens, sports complexes, natural areas, a lake, a performing arts venue, and aircraft museum, and much, much more. Just to give an idea of how big this park will be, Central Park in New York is 850 acres which means the Great Park will be almost 500 acres larger! We are very excited to have the park so close to home and thrilled that the sports complex is scheduled for completion within the next 3-5 years. For now visitors can enjoy a free flight in the tethered helium balloon that will serve as the park's icon and soar over 400 feet above the park while taking in views of the surrounding area. If you go on a day that isn't filled with June Gloom than you have a great chance of catching a view of the ocean. Since we had family in town from Texas and the men were playing golf, I thought I would take the ladies (and Ben) on over for a flight. We all had a great time and even though I have a fear of heights I felt very secure in the balloon and enjoyed the views as long as I didn't look straight down.

Here are some of shots from the trip:

 

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Waiting for liftoff

 

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Way up high!

 

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We live somewhere out there. Look for our house by the big cloud shrouded mountain.


6 comments:

Terri said...

That is awesome, Shar! I wanna go up in a balloon!

BenLand said...

i too fear heights but i think i'd be willing to try that too......what a great view!!! so pretty :)

The Romero-Schroeder said...

WOW that is such a cool thing to do!!!!!!!!!!

debi9kids said...

No way would I EVER get in that thing! HOLY COW! It's cool as heck, but no way jose :)

Helene said...

Such beautiful pictures! I'd be too scared silly to actually ever go up in a balloon but I think they're fascinating to watch!

Just Spotted said...

one of our favorite adventures!

xoxo, K