Goal #30 was to fly in a helicopter and this can prove to be a bit of an expensive goal. Now let's backtrack to this past Christmas of 2011. When the husband and I were exchanging gifts he handed me an odd shaped package that I had absolutely no clue to what it was. When I opened it I found a photo album that had a map on the cover, and he told me that the real presents were inside. Instead of getting me the normal gifts (diamonds, clothing, a pony, etc...) he decided to surprise me with things we could do together. He had been looking out for deals on different websites like Groupon and Living Social to find different deals on activities that I might want to try, or ones that he knew for sure were on my bucket list. Boy did I get lucky because one of the deals he found was for a helicopter tour over Sonoma County and lunch for 2. It was still a bit pricey but not anywhere close to the original cost. It expired this month so I made sure to make a reservation ahead of time so we were sure to have a babysitter for that date. A toddler in a helicopter? I think not. Luckily my mother in law lives on the way to where we were going so we dropped off the munchkin and away we went!
The drive to Sonoma is absolutely beautiful and if you are ever in Northern California I highly recommend making a stop there and visit some of the amazing wineries. The place who was offering the deal was called Heloventure and they were as nice as can be. When we got there a woman instructed us on what we were to do once we actually got in the helicopter and just some basic safety precautions. Our flight was scheduled to go at noon and we were able to get on pretty close to that. Our pilot was awesome and he pointed out specific things to look at throughout the flight, which lasted probably around 45 minutes. They also gave us a voucher for $25 towards the restaurant next door!
(Our transportation for the day. So fancy!)
(Cute husband before liftoff)
(We're ready for liftoff!)
(The best view in the house)
(Infineon Raceway)
One of the spots we flew over was Infineon Raceway where they do all kinds of car and motorcycle races. We were lucky enough that the day we chose to do our flight, they had motorcycles out doing races on the tracks. They looked so tiny from where we were!
(Some pretty cool looking lakes)
(Pretty, pretty, pretty)
(The cute little diner next door. Loved the decor!)
Overall it was such an awesome experience and it was nice to have a little "baby free date." And I was able to cross off another goal on my list! Hopefully there will be many more in the future that I get done as well ;)
