Happy Belated Birthday to Me!

We see hot air balloons all the time out here, so anytime I would see one flying around I would tell Josh that I was jealous. I was in New Mexico last year on my birthday, but when I got home I received two tickets for a hot air balloon ride. 

I was pumped. 

After scheduling and re-scheduling a minimum of four times for various reasons, we finally made it to Temecula! We met at a winery in Temecula before sunrise, where they served everyone pastries, coffee, and mimosas while we were waiting for the balloons to be ready. We walked through the grapevines down to the balloons, took a few pictures, and got in the baskets. We were in the air about an hour, going up to about 1,500 ft. It was a very relaxing ride and the scenery (with lots of other hot air balloons in the air) was pretty fantastic. Once we landed, they took everyone back to the winery and served more mimosas, coffee, and cheesecake. It was a very relaxing, pleasant morning, minus the 4:20am wake up. 

In the balloon before take-off.

Pre-flight champagne

Beginning our trip over an orange grove.  

Self portraits at 1,000 ft. 

I'm so glad that Josh was listening to my constant whining wanting to go up in a hot air balloon because we both had a great time.  I think it was one of those things that everyone should try once, but it's not necessarily something you have to do more than once (like parasailing or zip lining).

Now I just need to go deep sea fishing. Maybe we can do that for my next birthday...