For our 15th anniversary Jess and I took a hot-air balloon ride. Sarah watched the girls for us and we drove out to Rancho Murieta (a tiny town southeast of Sacramento) and stayed the night at a hotel before getting up at, ugh, 5am to get ready and out the door for our dawn departure time.
It was fun and I'd do it again. I'd probably ask the pilot for a recommendation on time of year though because apparently summer can be a bit less exciting. When the air is hotter your balloon has fewer options for maneuverability (which is achieved by moving up or down into different thermoclines which have different wind directions). We found that out by getting "stuck" below 1000 feet, the air at that altitude was part of a heat bubble sitting over the valley and we couldn't ascend through it. So we didn't go very far, very fast, or very high, but it was fun regardless. Which is all preferable to going too far, too fast, or too high--so there's that.
We landed in a field and then the balloon minions dragged us over to the road, over a fence, and into someone's yard where they could safely tear down the balloon without needing to carry it hundreds of feet to the truck.
Once the balloon was packed up in the truck we got back to the van, then back to the hotel, had breakfast, and then headed home.
