I turned 22 on Thursday. 
Normally, birthdays for me are pretty low-key. We usually will go out for dinner so I don’t have to cook and my parents often send a small gift. We’re so busy that we oftentimes don’t have the time to properly celebrate, but I don’t mind. It’s really just another day. For my 21st birthday, we did a bit more, but I wasn’t really planning on doing anything special this year for 22.
Andrew is so sweet. He always wants to make sure my birthday is special, so he was trying to suggest going out and doing something different since we both had most of the day off. He suggested bowling, or going to a place called Skyzone where there are wall-to-wall trampolines. He had other suggestions, but none of them really interested me. And then, something popped in my head: what about a helicopter ride?
I looked into some prices online because I’ve always figured they would be too expensive for us to consider, but I found a Groupon for half off and for three people, so it ended up being under $40 a person, which isn’t too bad! They only do rides on the weekend, so we couldn’t actually book a tour on my birthday – which was a Thursday – so we booked one for tonight. Up to three passengers could come, so we asked our friend Alex if he wanted to join us. Of course he said yes. 
We arrived a bit early at the downtown airport (which I didn’t even know existed!) but there was no one that booked before us so they let us go ahead. I was a bit nervous, but as we climbed inside the helicopter and put on our headsets, my nervousness just turned into pure excitement! I felt like I was in a movie. 
The pilot started up the engine and let it warm up for a few minutes before we lifted off.
He flew us around the downtown area, which was so neat because I could point out to Andrew and Alex exactly which building I worked in. He then flew us down Main St. passed Westport towards the Country Club Plaza. We live about a mile from the Plaza, so it was really easy to spot out our apartment buildings! Everything looked so small from above!
The ride was pretty smooth. It was a bit windy, but I wasn’t nervous any during the actual ride. We turned and headed back up north towards downtown. We actually passed through downtown instead of over it on the way back. It was crazy to be flying next to some of the skyscrapers!
We went pretty late in the evening, around 7:00 PM, but I felt like it was the perfect time to go. Most of the day was pretty rainy and cloudy, but the skies cleared a bit and it was beautiful to see the sunset!
I do wish the ride would have been a bit longer because it flew by so fast! It was a twenty minute ride which I thought would be a lot of time, but next time I think I’d pay more to have some more time. I want to go again! It was one of the best experiences, and it made a perfect birthday present.
