Balloonin!

We woke up early the next day and met Kevin (the guy with the balloon) in Willetts. I’m not going to write much about going up other than that I felt like I was Charlie in the Great Glass Elevator. The coolest moment was when all of a sudden I realized that we weren’t on the ground anymore. It was like the ground moves away from you; all of a sudden, you're up! Like in Peter Pan. I thought happy thoughts and up I went. For about an hour we flew over Willetts. It’s a hick town, but the people were nice and they all waved and shouted hello and took photos as we passed over their houses. It was a blast. Afterwards we had a glass of crappy champagne and toasted to ballooning past and present. I'm ready to go again.

We were told we were 4 1/2 hour from San Fran, but I thought there was no way that was true. SF was only 130 miles away. We stopped along the way for lunch and made it there in closer to 2 hours. For the past two nights, Darcy's friends have been putting us up in their gorgeous apartment in Oakland. Yesterday, we walked around SF and I got to see Fisherman's Wharf and the sea lions (coolest thing ever... there are hundreds of them that all come and hang out and bark and crawl and lie all over each other. Apparently they started appearing on these docks after the earthquake. Scientists don't know why.), and the golden gate bridge, and alcatraz, and ghiradelli square. Last night we went out dancing and today I am meeting up with mum's friend in Sonoma. Tomorrow, I head over to Tahoe.

I can't believe that I'm already on my way back east again.

Half way done, it's been amazing. Still miss and love you all.
Tamara