A Hot Air Balloon Adventure!!

I recently had the luck to cross something off my bucket list: a hot air balloon ride!!

While on a (too) short visit to Charlottesville, Virginia, United States, I went on a hot air balloon ride...so different from my last flying adventure!

This is the pilot using the jets of hot air to blow up the balloon.

And let me tell you: the balloon ride more than exceeded expectations.

In fact: it was pretty awesome.

And just begged to be photographed.

This may be a silly observation

but I had no idea how ridiculously large the balloons are...

or how hot it really does get!

We rose very early to take a flight just after the sun had come up over the Blue Ridge Mountains with Boar's Head Ballooning.

If this isn't on your list of things to do, you really need to add it right now.

Actually it was so cool that you pretty much should have already had it on the list!

It's hard to believe the balloon looks this small prior to it being inflated.  Stay tuned: pictures from the air coming soon!

For more information on Boar's Head Ballooning.

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A Harare Smorgasbord

A tailor sits with his sewing machine at the Belgravia shops in Harare, Zimbabwe.

Bricks stand ready for a house to be constructed in the Highlands neighborhood of Harare.

The Christian Science reading room downtown in the Avenues, Harare.

City center of Harare.

The city is covered with homemade signs advertising services.

Something I can't get used to in Africa is the (clearly not so safe) riding habits of Africans....

It reminded me of this car rapide in Senegal.

I mean, really, realllllllly comfortable enough to sleep on these logs during rush hour?!!  

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Snapshots from the Road: Returning to Harare

A man rests on the road into Harare, Zimbabwe, from the Save Valley.

You'll see groups of people clothed in white all over Zimbabwe.
They are vaPostori ("Apostles" in Shona) and are a mixture of African traditional religious practices and Christianity. 

Street vendors selling to a stopped bus along the road.

Forgive the photo, it was shot through the window of a moving car, but I just love the images of women selling fruit (so much I have a painting of it..)

Along along the road between Harare and Save Valley are these small shops in the middle of nowhere, all with Coca Cola on them.
This one's called Mufudze G/Dealer.  Oh, I heart the store names in Zim!

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