Up, Up, and Away...

Yesterday we opted to stay on the grounds of our beautiful resort and enjoy the facilities - having a delicious Sunday brunch at Wright's (and marvelling at all of the little architectural details that we now "get" after our Taliesin West tour) and enjoying the pools and hot tubs (well, Daniel and Dana enjoyed the water while Maddie and I enjoyed various lounge chairs around said pools and hot tubs) before heading off for our 3:00 PM launch date with Rainbow Ryders.

The grounds here are simply spectacular, and it's easy to imagine spending many a content vacation exploring them (which we intend to do some more of this afternoon!)

This, the Catalina pool, apparently, was Marilyn Monroe's favorite pool on the property. :)

The kids enjoy the Adirondack chairs, generously sprinkled throughout the resort.

The lobby, with a famous Wright design on display

The Christmas tree awaiting us a day's end at the entrance of the resort.

This is the slide at the Paradise Pool and Cabana, the largest pool area on the property.  Yes, both Dana and Daniel (and nobody else during the time we were there) went down the slide!

Of course, the highlight of the day was that hot air balloon ride with Rainbow Ryders, and what a highlight it was.  Rarely do I find that something you anticipate will be a highlight actually winds up living up to that expectation.  More often the high expectations lead to a more measured response.  Not so with this experience.  It was so wonderful from start to finish, professional, fun, exciting, beautiful... that we were all beyond thrilled with this check on our bucket list.  As Dana said on Facebook, photos don't truly do it justice, but here are a few that come closer than others:

 There were a dozen balloons launching from the same site at sunset, which provides the best photographing opportunities for the passengers in each balloon.  Truly spectacular to view.  Patrick, our pilot, says that there are 600 - 1000 in the sky during the Albuquerque balloon festival each year.

Now we're off to breakfast at a local tradition known as Matt's Big Breakfast, followed by a visit to the Heard Museum in downtown Phoenix, lunch with my cousin Nikki in the swanky section of Scottsdale, then back to our resort for a final afternoon enjoying these gorgeous grounds before we check out tomorrow morning.