A-Lot-A Hot Air Balloon Rides, Frenchtown, New Jersey

     Mike just ticked Item #32 off his bucket list - the hot air balloon ride.  I was a teensy bit apprehensive about ascending to 3,000 feet in a wicker basket, but I wasn't going to stay on the ground while he had all the fun.  In the end, I'm not sure who had the best time (but I'm pretty sure it was me).
   

This is our pilot, Tom Robins, who owns A-Lot-A Hot Air Balloon Rides.
http://upnoa.com/
Tom is a licensed commercial pilot.  It's important to check credentials when you entrust your safety to someone.  You can verify pilots' credentials on this FAA website:  https://www.faa.gov/pilots/
From the above link, hover over "Licenses & Certifications" located at the top, center of the page.  Click "Airmen Certification" in the drop down box.  In the "Top Tasks" box (right side), click "Search airmen certification information."  You'll have to supply information about yourself before you will be permitted to search.  Enter your information on the form and submit.  Now you can enter a pilot's name to verify that he/she is licensed.

We took off from the baseball field at the Clinton Elks Lodge.  Tom rolled in with a seven passenger SUV and his seven passenger balloon.

This is the basket.  Wicker is used because it's light weight and flexible.  Balloon makers have tried other materials, but nothing performs like old fashioned wicker.  A basket has a service life of 30-40 years.  The rectangular opening is for boosting yourself up when you climb in.

The balloon is in the purple bag.  The giant fan is used at the start of the inflation process.  

This is Chris.  She was our one woman ground crew.  She is a balloon pilot who prefers flying competitions over ferrying passengers.   

Chris explained the power of the burners.  These burners produce 30 million BTU's.  You might only need a 150,000 BTU furnace to heat your house.  The fuel is propane, and it is stored in two tanks on the floor of the basket.       

These cables connect the balloon (or the envelope) to the basket.  Each cable is capable of holding 2,000 pounds.

Balloons would be too heavy if the cables extended to the top of the nylon envelope.  Strapping is used instead of metal cables.  Each strap is also rated to hold 2,000 pounds.

Everything is laid out on the grass and the balloon is inspected.  Before inflation, the balloon is tied to the SUV.

The fan pushes air into the balloon.   

Now that the envelope is expanded with ambient air, it's time to fire up the burners.

Was I the only one hearing J. Geils Band's "Flamethrower" in my head?

Getting there.

Almost,

It's time for pre-flight pictures.

And we're off.

The envelope contains parachutes or flaps which are opened to let hot air escape when needed to control ascents and descents.  You can see the larger parachute in the center of the black area.  That one is only opened  for deflation after the balloon has landed.  Look above the big parachute to see a portion of the small parachute valve.

Bye, Chris.

This is Joe, our co-pilot.  He flies souly for the love of ballooning.  He describes his two passenger balloon as a sports car - nimble and responsive. 

Hunterdon County.

We did a "touch and go" in this field.  Check out the shadow we cast on the trees.

We also skimmed across the surface of this pond.  Mike says he saw a turtle.

Another balloon in the distance.

Joe and Chris assist with the landing.  We landed in someone's side yard.  One of the children declared that she would be the coolest kid in school come Monday when she told the story and showed the pictures.  When landing passengers face forward, the direction in which the balloon is moving.  Keep your feet together and be prepared to flex at the knees.  

The top parachute is opening for rapid deflation of the balloon.

We hated to see it end.  It took about 20 minutes for Tom, Chris, and Joe to pack things up, then a few more minutes for talking to the homeowner and playing fetch with the family dog.    

   

       

Vacation Local - Morven Museum & Garden, Princeton, New Jersey

     Morven is a colonial home located at 55 Stockton Street in Princeton, New Jersey.  It was built in the 1750s by Richard Stockton.  His wife, Annis Boudinot Stockton, named the home Morven after a mythical kingdom in Ireland.  Stockton family members lived in the home until 1932.  Robert Wood Johnson II, chairman of the Johnson and Johnson company leased the home form 1932 until 1944.  New Jersey Governor Walter E. Edge purchased the home in 1944 and gave it to the State of New Jersey in 1954.  It served as the governor's mansion from 1944 to 1981.  It became a museum in 1982.
     New Jersey's governors still reside in Princeton.  They live down the road at 354 Stockton Street at an estate named Drumthwacket.  We'll have to put that on our list of places to visit.      

This picture of the back of house was taken from the garden.  The odd thing about the house is that it doesn't have a kitchen.  Colonial kitchens were often separated from living quarters because of the risk of fire.  In modern times the kitchen moved from place to place, sometimes in auxiliary buildings, sometimes in the home.  The kitchen was omitted in the museum restoration.   

The garden was swarming with blue winged digger wasps.  We learned that the wasps flying around are mostly males searching for mates.  The males don't have stingers and females won't sting unless handled.  They live underground and eat Japanese beetle larvae.  Knowing this we walked among the insects without concern.  

Every museum has a gift shop.  This is where you purchase tickets.

Mike, taking a breather,

There are two gardens - a pleasure garden and a kitchen garden.  This is the pleasure garden.  The kitchen garden, not so pretty because we are at the end of the growing season, produces about 400 pounds of food each summer that is donated to food banks.

This female torso is dressed in plants.

I'm glad to see they compost the yard and garden waste.

Robert Wood Johnson II built the pool and pool house even though he was only a renter.  The pool was filled in, and the pool area is a fountain now.  

A brick wall built in the 19th century divides the pleasure garden from the kitchen garden.  The wall was my favorite place at Morven.  It was easy to imagine what it must have been like in 1850 to sit, back against the bricks, reading a book  or watching blue winged digger wasps searching for love.

Vacation Local - Sergeantsville Inn, Sergeantsville, New Jersey

     Mike and I selected the Sergeantsville Inn as one of our dining spots.  This structure, built as a home in the early 1700s, served as a grocery store, ice cream parlor, and pelt trading center before becoming a restaurant in the early 1900s.  A fire gutted the building in March 2015.  The owners reopened in December 2016.
     Our main reason for chosing the Sergeantsville Inn was the unusual menu.  Besides the standard dining fare, adventurous eaters can order bison, pheasant, wild boar, venison, and even kangaroo.  I figured that if the chef could make kangaroo taste good, he or she would do an outstanding job on lamb chops.
     The website:

http://sergeantsvilleinn.com/dinner.html

Parking is a little challenging.  There are spaces in front, and there is a small lot across the street.  We had to wait until someone left before we could park. 

The interior was beautifully restored after the fire.

The bar was really hopping.  Besides the bar, there are two dining areas, and they offer outside seating.

The Upper Level Dining Room
We sat in a smaller dining room in the back known as "the library."

Lemon Drop Martini and White Russian
Mike says the White Russian was light on the Kahlua. 

My dinner, grilled lamb chops, spinach, and fingerly potatoes.