SEQUIM — Up here, it’s easy to feel reverent.
It’s warm. Still as a mountain morning. And it feels as if an invisible hand has lifted you, slow and easy, until you’re hovering high over a perfect valley.
At 6:53 a.m. Monday, we left a grassy spot at the Sequim Valley Airport, seven lucky travelers snug in a basket.
Fully inflated above us: a 160,000- cubic-foot nylon balloon, newly arrived for the inaugural Sequim Balloon Festival this weekend.
Colin Graham of Endeavor Ballooning, based in Yuma, Ariz., is a balloonist flying here for the first time; he took his extra-large aircraft, Miss Guided Intelligence, aloft Monday morning.
Then: “Wow! This is cool,” Graham exclaimed as balloon, pilot and passengers rose higher and higher.
The bright-green fields, bathed in golden sunlight. The dark shoulders of the Olympic Mountains, outlined against pale-blue heavens.
And the Strait of Juan de Fuca, smooth and silver, connecting our stretch of land to Canada.
Using blasts of propane-fueled flame up into the orb, Graham took us 1,000 feet in fewer than five minutes; then, 3,300 feet.
“We’s up here,” he declared — and then we all turned to behold another balloon.
The Diamond Sun, piloted by Crystal Stout of Amboy, had taken off after us.
Voluptuous, the Sun rose slowly.
We inhaled the view of the valley and its airborne visitor. And we savored the quiet, a peace with only the natural sounds of breathing.
This breathing was ours, and the flames’: high and orange-white, released by Graham’s pressing of a lever above his head.
We ascended to 3,400 feet at the highest to gaze at Mount Rainier, snow-white and shining to the east.
“God, this is so pretty,” said Graham, who had never been to Washington before.
He’s been flying for many years, though, from Roanoke, Va., to Mancos, Colo. Graham’s desire first bloomed when he saw a balloonist take off near his home outside Atlanta, when he was just 3 years old.
“That was the end of that,” he recalled.
And like all good things, our flight had to come to an end.
After an hour cruising over Old Olympic Highway and Kitchen-Dick Road, Graham began opening the balloon’s small vents, lowering us to Earth beside a lavender farm.
This is a rural spot, but a number of neighbors formed a flock and scampered over to greet us.
Outside Oliver’s Lavender’s farmhouse, Becki Starrett marveled at the new arrival, reporting that she could see it well as she’d left work at the Port Angeles Walmart half an hour before.
Conrad Albaugh saw the balloon too, as it came in for a landing beside his family farm.
He and his wife, Amie, have Amie’s Garden, and they were up early of course.
“Honey. Look outside,” Conrad said when he first caught sight of the balloon — which is about seven stories high — from his window.
Monday morning’s balloonists were as thrilled as the spectators. And Stout, who last flew a balloon here in 1995, has decided she wants to move to the Sequim area.
She and her husband will start house-hunting after this weekend’s balloon festival, where she’ll meet lots of local residents.
Like Graham and his balloon, Stout will be taking passengers into the sky every morning this week weather permitting.
“We’re hoping to fly most of September and October,” she added.
First, though, Stout and about 10 other balloonists and their crews will populate the festival, Saturday through Monday.
At Grant Field, 792 West Sequim Bay Road just off East Washington Street, the festival just about overflows with things to do. There’s the Artists of Elegance arts and crafts showcase, children’s entertainment, the “Hot Gas & Gears” car display, live music by 17 bands, three street dances. And at 8:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, the Night Glow balloon lineups will appear beside the field’s reflecting pool.
The mass ascensions, also weather permitting, will happen at 6 a.m. Saturday through Monday at the Sequim Valley Airport, 468 Dorothy Hunt Lane just off Old Olympic Highway. Balloon rides cost $250 per person.
Tickets to the festival itself are $19 per day or $29 for a three-day pass; children 11 and younger can enjoy the events free, provided they are accompanied by an adult ticket holder. Complete information is at www.sequimballoonfestival.com.
To warm Sequim up for the weekend, the rock band Rare Earth will give a concert at Grant field Friday at 7 p.m., with the Fabulous Johnsons and Lee Oskar from the rock-funk band War, who is scheduled to arrive by hot-air balloon, promoter Quinn Hampton said.
Tickets to the Rare Earth show, sold separately from the festival passes, are $25 for general admission, $10 for youths ages 7 to 14, and free for children 6 and younger. A limited number of reserved seats are available for $40 each. Ticket outlets include 7 Cedars Casino in Blyn; the Purple Haze Lavender Farm and Store, the 101 Outpost, Hardy’s Market, Tattoo Guy and the Islander Pizza and Pasta Shack, all in Sequim; Coog’s Budget CDs in Port Angeles; the Highway Twenty Road House in Port Townsend; and at www.BrownPaperTickets.com.
Features Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5062, or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
