Jared's 40th Birthday Surprise

40th Birthday Surprise

Rachelle wanted to surprise me with an activity to celebrate my birthday. When she said we had to get up at 4:30 on Saturday I guessed it. She says she doesn't like heights but I know she's wanted to do a hot air balloon ride, so that was my big mystery present. It's certainly a memorable experience. I prefer experiences to things anyway. I can't remember what I got for Christmas but I will remember what I got for my 40th birthday.

What surprised me most about it was the heat. I expected it to be cold up there but since you drift with the wind it feels totally calm and every time the pilot fired up the burners we'd get blasted with heat. Rachelle was a little nervous for the first half-hour but that wore off. It was fun to see how the pilot had to steer by watching what direction other balloons were drifting and using the "spittometer" to see what winds were like below us. We had great views of Heber Valley although visibility wasn't great due to smoke from all the forest fires. The landing was exciting but fairly smooth. Guess which was the only passenger to scream?

Here I am helping inflate the balloon

After the ride we walked around Park City and checked out some art galleries as if we were buyers. We can't figure out why these artists can take a photograph and charge $10K for it. How much better are their photos than ours? Rachelle took me to sushi for lunch to cap off a birthday to remember.