So we had a super fun birthday surprise…or more precisely…I DID! Jake booked us a hot air balloon ride over the front range of Colorado. It was pretty spectacular! We had so much fun….even though we did have to wake up at 430AM to get to the “lift-off location”. I had no idea what to expect that morning….I did not know where we were headed so early, or why, until we were walking into an empty field with a couple of people and a large truck and trailer. At first I thought…sky diving…because I told Jake that is exactly what i DID NOT want to do….but I was delightfully wrong. I realized once we walked up to the truck with a giant balloon logo what we were doing and it was just amazing. The balloon by itself weighs over 600 pounds (can you believe that?!). It was HUGE (see pics) compared to us. It took about 10 minutes for it to fully inflate, which is actually much faster than I would have thought. But it was so cool once we boarded the basket and took off.

Now I am not so deathly afraid of heights that I can’t handle it, but I was a bit nervous at first. My nerves were quickly shattered though because it was A BREEZE (no pun intended). You couldn’t even feel the sensation of lifting up it was like we weren’t even moving. You didn’t know we were moving until you saw the ground speed away from you and you could kind of feel the breeze, but because you are riding with the wind…you almost don’t feel anything. It is a really bizarre feeling for sure! But I say this because I would encourage anyone WHO IS afraid of heights to give it a try – because you will be pleasantly surprised by how easy and totally stable and safe you are in the basket.

We went up about 1500 feet which is pretty high and it was so cool. The balloon cannot go in a specific direction other than up and down, so we were at the mercy of the winds. We floated across the front range towards the east, and after about 2 hours, we landed in a large patch of open space. We also learned that you can’t control exactly where you land in a balloon…its kind of a crapshoot. Again, its up to the wind, but we were hoping we would land in some rich person’s front yard, talk about a wake – up call!

The adventure had to happen 4 days after my official birthday because of the weather, but i’m sure glad we waited, because it was phenomenal. Thanks Jakey for the best birtday gift ever! (or one of them!)

Jill