For my birthday this past Wednesday, my amazing parents paid for me and John to go on a sunrise hot air balloon ride in Temecula Winery through a company called Magical Adventures Hot Air Fun! This is probably one of the best birthdays I have ever had!! :)
At 5am, John and I headed down the road to meet at the South Coast Winery Resort & Spa to meet with the Magical Adventures crew and the other members of our trip! As we waited for our hot air balloon to inflate, we watched the sun begin to rise, and other hot air balloons begin to warm up and fly off!
The balloon next to us, was a beautiful rainbow colored hot air ballon! When it took off, it was so close to where ours was being set up! :)
A lovely couple took this photo of us in front of the rainbow balloon! Because it was on manual focus, it accidentally came out blurry! :( What a shame! But it’s okay! This is our only good picture of us together near the hot air balloon!
Our balloon was so awesome! It had a star and a moon on it, and was called the Luna! :)
Once it was up, we hopped on board and they took a photo of us on it with a Happy Birthday sign! :) (Once again, I apologize for the blurriness!)
Once we took off, it was AMAZING! Definitely an experience I would never pass up!
First, we flew over a winery! We started off a little low near the ground as the hot air began to fill the balloon! It was so close that we could see the vines and the grapes on it pretty clearly! Then we flew up a little higher to look at things from a bit farther! :)
We were pretty close together, so the camera was a little up close and personal. ;)
Just like in the Disney Ride, Soaring over California, we flew over orange groves! Farrel, our flight captain, decided to take us down a little lower! :) & Just like the ride, you could smell the sweet aroma of the oranges from our hot air balloon! We were so close to the orange groves that our basket grazed the top of some of the trees, and one man in our basket was able to pluck two oranges (sadly, unripe) from the trees! It was pretty darn cool! :)
As we got farther and farther away from the orange groves, they turned into tiny trees, like broccoli! :) You can see them extremely small in the following picture on the top right! :)
We were so high up in the sky, it was unreal! It is such a peaceful time just floating up there! Something I could have never imagined! It was amazing to see all that God has made! :)
As we began to lower, this is a small perspective of what we saw and how close we were to the Earth, yet still pretty far! :)
Once we landed, it was pretty amazing to see how Farrel opened a flap that allowed all the hot air to escape! As it deflated, we saw how the enormous balloon we were once in turned into 500 pounds of fabric laying on the ground waiting for the Magical Adventures crew to wrap it all up, and the basket stood alone in its 1,000 pound glory.
From the ground, and from above, the wineries were absolutely beautiful! When we landed around 8am, John and I were surprised to find out that Magical Adventures also provided us with a voucher for breakfast at the South Coast Winery! SUCH a great place for breakfast and brunch! It was my second time there and I got the Eggs Benedict twice–both times cooked to perfection. :) John got a bacon, sausage and mushroom omelet. :)
Here is my last photo, a photo of the both of us and our tasty meal, taken on my handy dandy iPhone. :)
Happy Friday! :)