For my birthday Richard told me to get home by 5pm from work so I knew he had something planned for me, I just didn't know what exactly. I got off work about an hour early and got home right around 5pm. When Richard got here he gave me a card for my birthday with a flier for a Hot Air Balloon ride, what an amazing surprise! He then had to tell me the bad news, my birthday balloon ride had been canceled due to high winds. Bummer! Richard looked so incredibly sad that we weren't able to go that I had a hard time feeling disappointed we weren't going, I just wanted to make him feel better about it.
Since weren't going on the planned surprise we improvised and had a fun evening as well. We decided dinner and a movie would be a good idea. So I got online to see what was playing nearby. Turns out nothing too exciting is playing in the theaters right now other then the newest Harry Potter and I still needed to watch the fifth movie before seeing it (I have been trying to reread the books before watching the movies). Then I saw that the new Ice Age and Harry Potter were playing as a double feature at the drive in, I haven't been to the drive in in years and it turns out Richard had never gone and seen a movie at the drive in. It seemed like a much better deal to go watch the movies at the drive in, much more worth the money to me. Which brings us back to the problem of me being behind on the Harry Potter movies. So, I decided Richard would run and get food while I watched the fifth movie so I could be done watching it in time to get to the drive in.
For dinner I decided on Famous Dave's BBQ, it's located in Everett and quite tasty. I got the brisket again, I quite enjoyed it, it's nice and moist and makes a good left over sandwich the next day. Though next time we go there I am going to have to get the ribs! Here is the link to there website: http://www.famousdaves.com/
After eatting dinner and finishing up watching the fifth Harry Potter we headed out to Puget Park Drive In. I hadn't been to a drive in for years, apparently longer then I thought if Richard has never been there. Can you believe we have been together for eleven and a half years already; it is crazy how time flies! I found the new Ice Age to be amusing for what it was and Peaches is adorable. The latest Harry Potter movie was great I think it's my favorite one yet. The books are certainly better then the movies, but they are growing on me as well. Here is a link to the drive in: http://www.sterlingrealty.com/drivein.asp
As for the hot air balloon ride, it is going to be rescheduled as soon as possible. I'm super excited for the trip, it's something I've always wanted to do! Richard picked the perfect gift for me for my 30th birthday! Hard to believe I'm 30 already, time just keeps going by! And another link this one is for the hot air balloon company we are going with: http://www.airialballoon.com/
I had a wonderful birthday, even if I didn't get to do what was planned. And to make it even better; I got dinner and a movie and I still get to do the planned trip soon!
Thankfully we didn't have to wait long for our hot air balloon ride, they were able to move us to the next day!
After arriving at the office we signed a lovely little waiver saying we understand things could go wrong, blah blah blah. The company Richard chose has never had an accident, but I suppose they make us fill out the forms just in case. We then waited around until everyone got there and they had everything ready to go. They sent up a few pilot balloons to verify what the wind was up to and then we headed off in the van to go to a launch site. 
Upon getting to the launch site that they were planning on using there was a little more wind then they wanted so we ended up getting back in the van and driving a couple fields away. After deciding that the launch site would work they rolled out the balloon and Richard and one of the other people going in our basket held onto the edges so that the fan could blow air in to get the balloon started. The chaser held a rope that goes from the top of the balloon and the captain ran around unrolling the balloon, he even ran under it at one point which looked rather amusing. Once the balloon was mostly filled the captain started blasting hot air in to get it to lift off the ground. When the balloon was floating we all climbed in, took a quick picture and then they untied us and off we went!
The view from the balloon is amazing! There are some very expensive looking houses in the Snohomish area with horse jumps and such, they were really neat looking from above. Funny enough we could hear what people are saying from the balloon even though we were about 2500 feet up at our highest. Someone offered us a beer, our captain yelled back that he would have to come back later, which then prompted a very surprised "They can hear us". We went over some flower fields, saw Bob's corn maze from above and got to watch the sunset from the air. I took pictures the whole way. I can only imagine how awesome it would be on a less hazy day. The haze really did cut down how far we could see, I know there are mountains out there but we could barely make out the outline of them. I hope to go on another hot air balloon ride on a clean air day as well! Haze or no haze, it was absolutely amazing! 
When it came time to land the winds weren't quite cooperating with us so instead of landing at the air field we ended up a little east of there. We were heading towards a field and the wind quit going all together so we just floated over a corn field for awhile, it was rather peaceful. We then went up again and came back down towards a motocross course. The captain found that the wind was going such that we could go back towards where he had wanted to land so we went back up again. We had a nice soft landing and then we just had to wait in the balloon until the chaser arrived. After the chaser arrived the captain pulled the valve out of the top of the balloon and it slowly floated down. We all climbed out and they proceeded to work on rolling up the balloon and shoved it back in a giant bag. By the time we left it was getting dark and the moon was rising. 
After the balloon ride we headed back to the place we started and had the traditional champagne toast that follows all balloon rides. The toast was followed by a spaghetti and meatball dinner with salad, watermelon and garlic bread. It was quite tasty. We sat around in the gazebo eating and chatting with the people who went up in the two balloons. One of the couples in our basket were from Indiana, they told us about this neat sounding City Museum in St. Louis, I want to go there sometime for our annual anniversary vacation. They then brought out a little cake for me with a hot air balloon on it, this completely caught me off guard, what a lovely surprise at the end of a lovely evening! 
