Taking the kids: Hot air ballooning in New Mexico

(Tribune Media Services) -- We floated over the Rio Grande and skirted the tops of green cottonwood trees with the Sandia Mountains in the distance while school kids pointed and waved at us. We waved back.

It's never easy to get teens or college students up early, especially on vacation, but here they were all smiles before 7 a.m. -- before anyone had had breakfast or even a cup of coffee.

And I wasn't dreaming. We were floating high above Albuquerque, New Mexico, in a giant, rainbow-colored hot air balloon. We gave each other one of those I-can't-believe-we're-here grins that made every argument we'd had on our Southwest road trip fade away. Every vacation should have at least one standout moment like this.

Albuquerque (www.itsatrip.org) prides itself on being one of the best places in the world for ballooning. The unique conditions here -- the combination of the mountain formations and the river valley -- enable balloon pilots to launch, move with the winds at different altitudes and even backtrack along their original course. Albuquerque has more than 300 local balloonists -- more, officials say, than in any other state. Friends who live here tell us it's not unusual to be startled early in the morning by balloonists sailing overhead or landing nearby. (The winds are most favorable just after sunrise and before sunset.)

In fact, city officials are inviting locals to mark their lawns with a big X, if they'll welcome balloonists landing during the International Balloon Fiesta (www.balloonfiesta.com) happening October 6-14. The city will play host to 700 balloonists and some 800,000 spectators from around the world, including many families, at the largest such event in the world. During the Fiesta, there's a hands-on Balloon Discovery Center at Balloon Fiesta Park (the kids can simulate a flight). Nearby, the Anderson-Abruzzo Albuquerque International Balloon Museum (www.balloonmuseum.com) is dedicated to the history of the sport. Three Albuquerqueans -- Ben Abruzzo, Mazie Anderson and Larry Newman -- were the first to successfully cross the Atlantic in a helium balloon.

Certainly there are lots of places to take the kids hot air ballooning -- over the vineyards in Napa Valley, for example, or the Red Rocks of Arizona. Google "hot air balloons" and you'll find dozens of options (typically $150 or more per person, less for kids.) But we figured if we're going to try this, it might as well be in Balloon Central with Rainbow Ryders (www.rainbowryders.com), the official balloon ride operator for the Fiesta.

Others clearly agree and weren't dissuaded by the cost. Roger Williams and his daughters Jessica, 18, and Kathryn, 14, drove more than five hours from Lubbock, Texas, for the balloon ride, after settling Jessica in her dorm room at Texas Tech University. "I wanted her to do something fun before school," explained Williams, who lives in Houston.

"My wife's parents had gone to the Balloon Fiesta and the kids loved looking at their pictures," said Philadelphia physician Dr. Neil Fishman, whose 7-year-old son, Jeffrey, and 11-year-old daughter, Claire, though sleepy, seemed excited, as they waited with us in the lobby of the Hyatt Regency Tamaya Resort (www.tamaya.hyatt.com) for the balloon pilots to pick us up.

The 500-acre resort, just outside of Albuquerque, is owned by the Santa Ana Pueblo and sits on Pueblo land. It has its own balloon launch area, but because of the weather, Rainbow Ryders took us to a field about 20 minutes away and we clamored out of the van, eager to help inflate the giant balloons -- 120 feet high!

Our pilot, Frank Gallegos, proudly told us that he has been ballooning for 38 years. His son, Joe, a University of New Mexico student, is part of the crew. "I first took him up when he was just two days old," Gallegos said. Balloons, he said, operate though the principal of gravity. As air inside the balloon is heated, it rises. When the air is cooled, the balloon descends. To inflate the balloon, the crew uses a giant fan, and then heats the air with a burner.

Our hour-long ride above Albuquerque would require nearly 50 pounds of propane and the balloon, which is 210,000 cubic feet when fully inflated, is capable of pulling a ton, a weight that includes the heavy basket and nine eager passengers.

As soon as the balloon and large wicker basket were upright, we quickly climbed inside. Gallegos gave the balloon some hot air (propane) and before we knew it, we were floating high above the awakening city.

"I really liked being over the river," reported 11-year-old Claire Fishman, who was in another balloon with her family. But her younger brother Jeffrey, 7, wasn't as enthusiastic. Frightened by the height, he spent most of the time sitting in the bottom of the basket, his mom, Dr. Abby Huang, said. But he did pop up periodically to wave at the school kids.

Definitely worth waking up for, my girls said.

Now if we could just find some coffee. E-mail to a friend

(For more Taking the Kids, visit www.takingthekids.com, where Eileen Ogintz welcomes your questions and comments.)

Copyright 2009 EILEEN OGINTZ, DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.

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