Hot Air Balloon Ride

For my Christmas present, I told Ben I wanted to do something fun.  So, he got us a hot air balloon ride! 

It was an early morning, but also pretty cool that we could just drive up to Temecula to ride one.  The weather was being difficult and we ended up driving around for almost an hour looking for just the right launch spot.  At one of the 'check the wind' spots, we got in a conversation with the pilot.  Long story short, he asks us what part of Lawrence we're from and I ask him how in the world he knows Lawrence Kansas and he pulls up his hoodie to reveal a Sunflower Bike Shop t-shirt!  Come to find out, he grew up in Lawrence in the 70's and learned to drive hot air balloons in Kansas City!  

We watched the sunrise and the crew set up the balloon in the wine country of Temecula.

The first few moments of going up were slightly scary, but I had to just not think about the fact that some whicker was holding me up in the air.  Also, I really could have used a taller basket...but no one fell out :)

There was another balloon up with us that morning.

Our pilot talked our ear off the whole time about the mountains we could see, all the different wineries and their owners and then would throw in flashbacks to his life in Kansas.  The other two girls in our basket didn't say a word the whole time.

They gave us mimosas at the end, which was fun in theory but I really needed coffee at 8:30am, not champagne.

We certainly had an adventure we will not forget!  We went to get breakfast afterwards and then ran the Santa Margarita trail.