Concord family conquering the skies one aircraft at a time

By Keith Testa - Nov 26, 2013 | 0 comments

Look, you can see that tree, and that tree, and that tree, and that tree.

Look at all those tiny people on their “rides” at Canobie Lake Park. Want a real ride? Hop in a hot air balloon.

Four-year-old Caia soaks in the view during a family hot air balloon ride.

Alana Kimball and family hopped in a seaplane for some sweet aerial views of foliage over Lake Winnipesaukee.

Alana Kimball threw herself into the real world a little more literally than most.

To celebrate her final day of school, she eschewed both a traditional graduation party and all contact with terra firma – instead, she and a good friend decided to go skyping. So there’s plenty of evidence that soaring through the air is not a problem for the Concord resident and teacher in the Hillsboro-Deering school district.

That’s why when she and her husband – who is working toward his pilot’s license – spotted a seaplane flying over Lake Winnipesaukee recently, it was really only a matter of time before they found their way into the cockpit.

When the Insider solicited fall foliage photos for a recent contest (shameless plug: more info on the contest can be found on Page 30), Kimball was the only person to submit images from several hundred feet above sea level. That was thanks to a journey into the sky with Lakes Region Seaplane Services, with her husband at the wheel (is it still called a wheel in an airplane?) and her 4-year-old daughter Caia continuing her early-age exposure to a life of aerial adventures.

“You’re lower to the ground (than in a normal airplane), so you are just above the mountains or kind of at the same level of some of them, so you can see really, really far,” Kimball said. “It’s just a really great vantage point to see foliage and see all the different islands and people’s homes.”

Bright leaves weren’t the only colorful visuals on this particular flight, though – thanks to some turbulence and a few maneuvers by Alana’s husband, Jeffrey, Caia wound up getting a little bit airsick.

“It was very turbulent in the back, I think more turbulent than in the front, and you get a little vertigo because of what they were doing, and Caia was sitting in the back saying ‘Oh my tummy hurts, oh my tummy hurts,’ and I said, ‘you probably just have to go to the bathroom.’ Not so much,” Kimball said.

Not that Kimball, experienced kamikaze though she is, could blame her little girl.

“I was nauseous the whole time, too,” she admitted.

Thankfully there were some pretty sick sights, too. Kimball said you could spot Kimball Castle (no relation, we presume) in Gilford and the Castle in the Clouds (no castle relation) in Moultonborough, as well as an abandoned airport.

“It’s all the little islands that you don’t realize are there,” she said. “You can see really far. You can see other lakes you don’t normally see.”

Kimball’s latest aerial adventure can be traced back to the power of Groupon, as it was a flying lesson purchased through said website that first got Jeffrey interested in flying. His uncle has a plane, which further fueled the interest and sparked his quest to obtain his own license.

We’re not entirely sure what other hobbies Jeffrey has, but they must include collecting original Michelangelos or something, because Alana said flying was “cheaper than all of his other hobbies.”

“He has lots of expensive hobbies,” she said.

Flying a hot air balloon isn’t one of them – yet. But, of course, the entire family has taken a ride in one of those, too. They flew with Infinity and Beyond, departing from a Walmart parking lot in southern New Hampshire and coasting over the region for almost an hour.

And the inspiration for the flight? A Groupon.

Turbulence wasn’t an issue here, though landing was tricky because “you just land in people’s yards,” Kimball said.

“It’s a really neat feeling, I can’t really describe it,” Kimball said of the hot air balloon ride. “You’re just floating along, smooth as can be, and you go up really high and down really low.”

It was also a more immersive experience in that the process includes unloading the balloon, helping the pilot fill it with air and taking off.

“You don’t go very far, but we could see all the way to the ocean, and I believe we could see Boston,” Kimball said.

For now, the Kimball family is comfortable at ground level, but there are already plans in the works for more soaring. In fact, it seems the trio is determined to tackle every variety of air travel possible before Caia hits junior high.

Of course, they’ve also created a monster already – Alana said the family can’t wait until Caia is big enough to go ziplining, the next escapade on the horizon.

“That will be our next adventure while she’s young,” Kimball said. “She has a need for speed.”