Hot Air Balloon Ride

The morning of Saturday, 8/18/12, Justin surprised me with my (early) birthday gift- a sunrise hot air balloon ride!  We got up at 4am (yikes!) and headed out to Token Creek, WI- right outside of Sun Prairie. 

Justin booked the flight with Gentle Breezes and we had a magical ride.  The pilot and crew were experienced, professional, knowledgeable and fun.  Highly recommended! 

We met up with the pilot, his ground crew, and another couple and headed to the Blackhawk airport in Cottage Gove to set up the balloon and take off.

They fill about half of the balloon up with 2 super high-powered fans…

…then they fire up the propane torch! 

After they turned on the propane, we were in the basket and off the ground within 5-10 minutes.  Once we got off the ground, the sunrise and morning mist views were absolutely breathtaking! 

My favorite shot of the day- fog and shadows in the sunrise.  Reminds me of some exotic shot of the Serengeti.  So mesmerizing! 

And a close-up

Though we were quite a ways away, Justin managed to get a pretty good shot of downtown Madison. 

We went over a couple small rivers, and some of the coolest sights of the day were the balloon reflections in the water. 

An aerial shot of Justin’s favorite church in Deerfield.

We were also lucky to see a few deer- including a fawn- running through the fields! 

We landed in a plowed field in Deerfield, about 50 yards away from the road.  Because the balloon + basket weigh upwards of 600 pounds, the pilot hovered the balloon about 4-5 feet above the ground, while the ground crew grabbed handles on the basket and ‘walked’ the balloon to the road.

Once we were at the side of the road, the passengers hopped out of the basket, and the crew started deflating and packing up the balloon. 

Happy birthday girl at the end of the ride- what an amazing experience!

 

~Kris

Lake Kegonsa

 

On Sunday, June 24, we hit up one of the many Madison-area lakes - Lake Kegonsa. 

We packed a picnic (complete with these awesome Black Box mini-wines), board games, sunscreen and beach towels and took off for a relaxing afternoon at the lake. 

The park and picnic area were really awesome- complete with gnarly old oak trees and beautiful wild tiger lilies. 

The lake itself was beautiful, but was suffering from a pretty severe case of blue-green algae, so we didn’t spend much time in the water. 

All in all, it was a perfect way to spend a summer afternoon.  And we can cross ‘picnic at the beach’ off of our Summer 2012 bucket list! 

~Kris

Cave of the Mounds

First up on our bucket list is our spelunking adventure!  About 30 minutes west of Madison near Blue Mounds, WI is an amazing natural landmark- Cave of the Mounds!  We went there for a quick 1-hour tour the evening of May 30. 

The cave was discovered in 1939 when limestone quarry workers blasted a section of the quarry and exposed an opening in the cave. 

For me, the coolest fact about the cave is that prior to the mining blast, it had never been exposed to the outside world.  There are no natural openings to the surface of the earth!  Because of that, and because of the year-round 50-degree temperature, the cave doesn’t support any living habitants (no bats, algae, bugs, rodents, etc). 

The rock formations and coloring in the cave were absolutely gorgeous.  And because we went on a weeknight, there were only 2 couples (including us) on the tour!  Definitely made for a more personalized experience. 

Even though there is no natural sunlight in the cave, we still managed to get some good photos!  Highly recommended tourist attraction in Southern Wisconsin! 

More info at Wikipedia, and the official Cave of the Mounds website.

~Kris

Summer 2012 Bucket List

Justin and I recently found out that we’ll be moving to Pittsburgh next spring for a 2-year stint while he completes his fellowship program (yay!)  That means this is our last summer in Wisconsin before we move away for a few years (boo!) 

So we decided to put together a ‘bucket list’ of Wisconsin attractions that we want to visit this summer, and I intend to blog about our experiences and capture some great memories! 

Our Last-Wisconsin-Summer Bucket List:

• Visit Cave of the Mounds
• Go on a Betty Lou Cruise
• Go on a Wisconsin Dells Boat tour
• Visit House on the Rock
• Hike at Devils Lake
• Visit Olbrich Gardens
• Hike around the trails at the Arboretum
• Have a picnic at one of the beaches in Madison
• Many happy hours at the Union (duh)
• Go to a couple concerts on the square
• Hit up the weekly Farmers Market
• Visit Door County
• Visit Bayfield & The Apostle Islands
• Eat at Halverson’s in Stoughton
• Visit Copper Falls in Mellen, WI
• And last, but definitely not least, get up to the cabin a handful of times!  (Cabin = my dad’s place in Northern Wisconsin on Connors Lake.  It’s my little slice of heaven on earth.) 

Hopefully around the end of September, we’ll be able to cross off the last bullet-point and consider our summer a success!  Stay tuned for updates as we turn into crazy local tourists…

~Kris

Culebra

On Tuesday, February 14, 2012, we spent the day snorkeling and hanging out at the gorgeous Flamenco beach on the island of Culebra.  Definitely one of the highlights of our trip!  (And a pretty awesome Valentine’s Day!)

Snorkeling

There was a little rainstorm before we went snorkeling, so the water wasn’t 100% clear.  We still had a great time and managed to get some pretty good shots with the new underwater camera.

Flamenco Beach

Gorgeous Flamenco Beach, with its white-sand beaches and turquoise water, is regularly ranked in the top 10 most exotic beaches in the world.  The US Navy also used the beach as a gunnery and bombing practice site in the 1930’s in preparation for the US involvement in World War II.  After protests by the Culebra residents in the early 1970’s, the US Navy moved operations to the nearby island of Vieques in 1975.  They left behind a couple (M4 Sherman?) tanks which are now awesome, graffitied tourist attractions. 

The Harbor

Additional information at the Culebra Wikipedia Site.
~Kris