When I was 4 or 5 years old I saw a hot air balloon for the first time. I think it was some festival in my hometown. I was very much impressed but it and soon after that I saw a dream, that I was flying a hot air balloon. It was such a bright and beautiful dream, that I remembered for life! Once in a while I had this though, that it would be wonderful to fly it one day. But somehow I always thought of it as something very distant. And from the beginning of this year, I started running into photos of hot air balloons in Cappadocia on Instagram, seeing ads on a plane and airport (I had a layover in Istanbul), and seeing it on travel shows.  I would always be mesmerized by the views and then it hit me! Well, I may not be quiet able to go to Cappadocia right now, but I can fly a hot air balloon here, in US. I only had to find a beautiful location. Doing it here, in DFW or Texas was out of question. I’ve skydove here before and I know that the views aren’t quite breathtaking. I knew that I have to have my childhood dream experience, where the views were absolutely stunning!

Quick google search gave me a list of 10 most beautiful hot air balloon rides in the US. Two of them caught my attention. Napa Valley and Colorado. While Napa seemed to be a prettier view Colorado had one huge advantage. My best friend Maggie has just recently moved to Colorado. I knew she would be down for this kind of adventure. So I booked my tickets to Denver and made reservation with Grand Adventure  and the rest is history! As always, traveling with Maggie was a blast! She’s the best travel buddy one can ask for. She finds the best places to see, best coffee shops and best restaurants to eat at. And we can always share everything we order to eat, which means instead of one dish we can try two! And of course we can take lots of pictures of each other (she is also a photographer)!  I hope you enjoy the photos. I have to admit though, not all of them are mine, I did steal a few from her 🙂

Cheers to your dreams!

Love, Julia