A couple years ago for my 30th birthday Nick had booked us a hot air ballon ride in Newberg, Oregon, about 30 minutes South of us here in Portland.  Unfortunately they canceled our ride the day before we were due to fly due to weather which left us disappointed as we have been wanting to do a hot air balloon ride forever.  Fast forward a year and a half and we had never gotten around to rescheduling our ride, when Nick came home with a fun surprise!  He had rescheduled our ride for this past weekend and so on a warm Spring Saturday morning this week, we got up at 4am and drove down to Newberg for our first hot air balloon ride.  Long story short, we loved it and I’m sure we’ll be doing many hot air balloon rides all over the world in the future!

We flew with Vista Balloons in Newberg and loved the experience with them.  From start to finish, the whole experience was lovely.  We watched as the balloons were filled and then as they each started taking off.  We flew over the Willamette River and marveled at the beauty of soaring above Oregon wine country, vineyards and farmland, fog slowly rolling over the countryside below us.  I was remarkably surprised at how smooth the ride was, how we lifted and fell so calmly.  For my first hot air balloon ride, I couldn’t believe how peaceful it was up there.  I know we’ll for sure be doing hot air balloon rides again in the future as we loved it so much, but for now, here’s some photos of our morning the air in a hot air balloon ride in Newberg and a little video I put together so you can experience a sense of what we did too!