One word to describe this trip...AMAZING!! If you have ever wanted to go hot air ballooning I would highly recommend it. I was a little nervous (not of the balloon collapsing, but of the basket not being sturdy enough :) ), yet I had nothing to worry about and it was so much fun in the end. I think I concentrated so much on documenting this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that I didn't have the chance to get nervous :).
Our flight started off very early in the morning. (Good thing we're really used to early mornings right now). The sun had just risen at Santa Rosa Airport as we all met to launch the air balloons.
This guy was pretty excited :).
We watched as they inflated the balloon with air and propane. Even before we took off the pilots went through 10 gallons of propane to get the balloon off of the ground!
I love this picture...
Once all the preparations were ready we were set to take off. Three balloons were flying that day and we were in one of the bigger balloons. Thirteen people fit into our basket. It was pretty cozy, but there was enough room.
In no time we were floating through the air above all the vineyards and houses below us. The pilots said it was one of the best days for flying in a long time. The winds were calm, the sky was clear, and weather was perfect! We could not have asked for a better day to fly. It was breathtakingly beautiful.
The pilot ever so often had to put more heat in to keep our balloon afloat.
We floated above the world for about an hour and a half. It was so quiet and so different than flying in an airplane. We tried to take in every moment...
At one point our balloon passed one of the others and we had a little balloon eclipse.
We decided to do some house hunting while we had a different point of view :).
The winds took us back fairly close to where we had taken off. While we waited for one of the other balloons to get out of the way, we came really close the active runway. The pilot had to get permission from the tower to have the ground crew grab the balloon and push us out of the way while we hovered a couple of feet off of the ground. The pilot jokingly called this the "walk of shame."
After the balloons were taken down we headed to a local winery where we were served a delicious homemade brunch. We sat in the middle of the rows of vines, picnic style, under a tree. Perfect ending to this wonderful morning.
After brunch we walked the beautiful grounds of the winery a little before we had to head back home to our girls (who by the way did AWESOME for both of our parents!).
So now Brandon's 30th birthday extravaganza is officially over. What a memorable way to celebrate this guy. Thank you to all our family for making this trip possible!! This is going to be a day we'll remember for a long time...
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