Balloons Breakfast
Balloons Breakfast was first introduced as a permanent addition to Balloon Launch schedules during winter quarter of 2015. Prior to the introduction of these breakfasts, team members met at the Durand Building at around 6:30 am, with the intention of already having eaten, and immediately began driving to the launch site. The thought of having breakfast prior to driving to the launch site was conceived by Aria Tedjarati and Kirill Safin the night prior to the launch. The meet-time was adjusted to 5:30 am, with a "leave-time" from Breakfast at 6:30 am.
Given the very small availability of open eateries at 5:30 am, the McDonalds adjacent to the Palo Alto Ikea was chosen as the breakfast option of choice. Eating breakfast at this McDonalds has, since the aforementioned launch, become a permanent aspect of every launch schedule -- with meetings starting at 5:30 followed by breakfast. This was seen as optimal given that there were no open food establishments on campus at such an early time in the morning -- meaning most balloons members did not eat prior to launch.