Last year for The Doctor’s birthday, I surprised him with a helicopter ride!

Pre-Flight

Since he was turning 30, I wanted to kick the day off with something he has never done before. Something fun and exciting! He has done so much so it was a somewhat challenging trying to figure out what I could possibly do for him.

About 3 weeks before his birthday, I got an email from Groupon for helicopter rides. This was PERFECT!!!!!!!!!! He has never been up in a helicopter before so I knew this would be the start to an amazing first day in his 30′s. I went ahead and purchased the Groupon deal. I can’t tell you how excited I was about this gift. I knew he would love it.

The day of, I kidnapped him, not really kidnapping since he willingly went, but it makes for a better story to say that

The airport where we would be taking off was about an hour away, so it was funny hearing what guesses he had for where we were going and what we were doing. He thought for sure we were going skydiving. On a side note, skydiving is one thing he said he doesn’t want to try, ever. That is until we went indoor skydiving a couple of months ago. That experience kind of planted the seed to the real experience but more about that later.

As we approached the airport, he “knew” I was taking him skydiving. That was quite entertaining to see his reaction to the possibility of that. Then we came upon the sign for helicopter tours and he figured it out. He’s smart like that from time to time!

We walked into helicopter office and did the usual checking in, signing release form thing. The we were heading out to the tarmac to load up.

The Doctor watching the pilot do the pre-flight inspection

Time to take off

What a view

I always enjoy seeing my city from high above the clouds

There is nothing fancy about this shot but for some reason I really like it

Wowza, what a house!

Something has my attention out there

The Doctor looking all sorts of handsome

Coming back in for a landing

It was a 30 minute tour and surprisingly we got to see a lot in that short time frame. If you haven’t had the experience of going up in a helicopter, I highly recommend it. The next time I do it, I want it to be in Hawaii viewing a waterfall or Alaska where you get to land on a glacier! Not really particular about where it happens, I just want it to be somewhere memorable and adventurous.

After the helicopter ride, we hit the kite beach so The Doctor could get some kite boarding in. I was still out of the water at this point due to my ruptured ear drum but it did give me the chance to sit on the beach and take lots of pictures.

The Doctor is on the orange kite. The lovely Skyway Bridge is in the background

Kites on the beach

After kiting, we headed home of get ready for dinner. I surprised him by taking him to the restaurant where we had out first date, Samari Blue. I also had his best friend and his girlfriend meet us there. It was so much fun!!

Sushi and Sake!!

To wrap the night up, it was time for desert. I baked Strawberry Cheese Cake and it was delicious!

I baked and we survived to tell about it

The Doctor’s birthday is quickly approaching. I have his gift picked out and it should be here on Tuesday. For months he has been searching for the Garmin Foretrex 401. Every time we hit a store that can possibly carry it, he checks. No one ever has it in the store. I went ahead and ordered it online.

https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?pID=30026

I just need to come up with something for the adventure part of the gift. I have a few ideas in mind but haven’t settled on anything just yet.

Any suggestions?!?!