The last couple of years my birthday has been overshadowed by other significant events. Two years ago, on my 30th birthday, Mike was sworn in as Mayor. The people got together to celebrate at The Falls, but I couldn’t even really go, b/c Katelyn was only two weeks old and we just got home from the hospital after having Katelyn diagnosed with sleep apnea. She was on the monitor and no one yet knew how to take care of her with that thing attached to her 24/7. I went out for an hour to meet up with Mike while my mom watched Katelyn but that was it.
Last year was Katelyn’s first birthday party/our annual BBQ bash two weeks before my birthday. So again, my birthday celebration consisted of going to dinner at Rooney’s in Long Branch. The food was mediocre and coincidentally Long Branch mayor was there celebrating his reelection. So, again it turned out into a bit of a political event.
I’m definitely not complaining, but also so far none of my birthdays have been anything to brag about.
This year Mike planned a birthday weekend getaway for the two of us, and he went all out! He booked dinner reservations for us at Mediterra in Princeton and a room at the Lambertville Inn. We’ve always wanted to stay there but never did. We started out on Friday afternoon (my actual birthday) and stopped at Freehold Mall on the way to Princeton.I got to pick out a new purse, wallet and sunglasses from Coach store. It was a nice birthday surprise! After our quick shopping stop we headed to dinner. The weather was great, so we got a table outside (no line, since we had reservations!). We went for paella and white sangrias. It was a very nice and relxing dinner. It felt like we were on vacation!
We were too full for desert so we walked around and then got some cup cakes from The House of Cupcakes (they are a winner of the Food Network ‘Cupcake Wars’ show). They were pretty tasty, and the variety that they had in the store was quite impressive!
Across the street, there were people dancing in front of the library. It was the Princeton Salsa Club. We joined in for a few minutes, since after all of the sangria it seems like a great idea! After that we drove over to Lambertville just in time to see the fireworks over the Delaware River! We checked in at the hotel and got a bottle of wine from Unionville Vineyards and coupons for free wine tasting at the vineyard. The afternoon and evening alone were so nice that it exceeded any expectations that I may have had for the day. But wait, there’s more!
The next day, we had room service breakfast, and headed out to shop around town.
On the way out, Mike told me he had a surprise for me, but didn’t know if he should tell me what it was. I didn’t want to be left hanging, so he told me that he booked us a hot air balloon ride at sunset in Flemington!! I was very excited but at the same time a little scared. I didn’t expect to be going in a wicker basket high in the sky when I woke up in the morning and now the anticipation was starting to build! We walked across the bridge to New Hope, PA, and visited our favorite bookstore! It’s always a nice treat, they have a lot of gardening and cooking books that are always fun to look at. I bought Mike a new ‘Life is Good’ T-shirt. For life has been really good and for that we are grateful! We had lunch at another favorite place, the Triumph Brewery. It was another awesome meal. Mike had the beer sampler; we shared some calamari, a fresh salad and blue cheese burger.
We walked around some more after lunch and found a massage place, so to make the weekend getaway experience even more relaxing, we went for a 15 min neck, shoulders and feet massage! We still had a lot of time to kill so we decided to start heading to Flemington, and stop at the Unionville winery for a tasting. The wine we got at the hotel was just awful, it was a very dry white, and not to our liking, however once we got to the winery and tasted a few, we found that they did have a lot of decent wines, both white and red. We bought a bottle of each to bring home. After that still had a lot of time left before our hot air balloon ride, so we headed for the Flemington Outlets. We haven’t been there in years, and it changed a lot. More than 50% of stores were vacant, and businesses have moved out to strip malls along the highways in town! The kitchen store was still there, so I was happy. We browsed around and got a couple of small things. The time was nearing for our hot air balloon ride. We drove to the launch site, and we were there to watch them inflate the balloon. We had to sign a waver which was a little scary. The balloon was huge! I’ve never seen one this close. Mike looked tiny standing next to it.
We learned a lot about the hot air ballooning. Turns out you have to have an FAA commercial balloon pilots license and log at least 3 takeoffs and landings every 90 days to be able to fly people. Most people that do this do it for fun. They have regular jobs and the flying passengers just pays for the balloon and it’s upkeep. I never gave it any thought but after watching those guys blow up the balloon you realize how much effort goes into a single flight. There was four people (plus a teenager) on the ground helping to inflate the balloon. They helped us get in the basket and off we went - the two of us with the pilot.
The rest of the folks got into a chase vehicle and followed us as we drifted through air. There’s no way to control the direction in which the balloon will go. There was practically no wind, so we drifted very high up, the pilot was hoping to catch a wind current, and so we went one mile up in the air!! It was a clear evening so you could see very far! Here are some pictures from our ride:
It was a little scary at first, since you are just standing in a basket one mile up in the air! You don’t feel the breeze since you are moving with it, there was no turbulence and the temperature up there was the same as down on the ground. We descended lower and flew above the tree tops over some farm land. The scenery was very pretty! It was interesting to look down; it was if we were spying on the people below. The dogs were barking at the balloon, and a lot of people were coming out of the houses to wave to us and take pictures of the balloon. One family even offered us to come down for some pizza! It was really neat. The balloon ride lasted about an hour. The pilot kept in touch with the people in the chase vehicle via radio. They followed us the whole duration of the flight until a landing destination was selected. Turns out they just find a nice green backyard to land on, and if people are home they give them a bottle of champagne. The pilot said that most people don’t mind because it’s cool to have a balloon land in your yard, however he said that he’s encountered a few that were not so welcoming and tried to chase him off the property. If he had enough fuel, he said he just went back up in the air to the next person’s yard. If it was getting dark already or he didn’t have enough fuel, he had to just quickly pack up and call it an emergency landing. In our case, he picked a site to land; the chase team was waiting for us there when we started descending. The grass looked tall and it looked very wet, so he radioed that he’ll keep going. He pumped more air into balloon and we went up over the trees to land in a side yard next to a big house. Again, the chase people were already on the grass waiting for us to land, as soon as the basket was low enough for them to grab it, they held it down so that we can get out. They put the balloon and basket on the side, and disassembled it in pieces. We helped them fold up the balloon and load everything in the truck after which we drove back to the launch site for a glass of champagne and some appetizers. The people were very friendly and we had a great time hanging out with them before heading home. We were a little hungry, so we stopped at Outback for a quick appetizer and a drink before returning home.
Needless to say, this was a birthday to remember! I can’t believe all that we did in just one and a half day’s time! It felt like we were on vacation for at least 3 days! Mike really outdid himself, and I’m really appreciative of all of the effort he put into planning getaway for us. We really need to relax and this weekend accomplished just that!
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