up!

Seeing these pictures from National Geographic has even further convinced me of what an incredible world we live in and how creative our world today is.  Just last week, National Geographic created a real life version of the floating house from the famous Pixar movie “UP!”.  If you haven’t seen UP!, you should probably add that to the very top of your latest to-do list.  It is the most endearingly fabulous movie I have seen in a long, long time.  And to think that the fabulousness of this Pixar animation was created in real life is even crazier.  Who would have thought that you could actually send a little periwinkle-trimmed yellow cottage off floating into the sky attached to hundreds of balloons.  I mean, that stuff only happens in Pixar movies, right?! 

Last week, National Geographic partnered with a team of scientists, engineers, and two world class balloon pilots to launch the house up into the air.  The 16′ by 16′, 18′ tall house was held up by three-hundred 8′ colored weather balloons when it was set off from a Los Angeles private airport.  This event even set a new world record for the largest balloon cluster flight ever attempted.  See what I mean when I say that we live in a pretty incredible world!?

(Images 1 – 5 via National Geographic. Images 6-7 via Google)