This was the last Friday night at James's dad's office building. They had a dinner with clowns to entertain the kids with balloons and face paint. It was good food!
Here are my brother-in-law and my nephew with their faces painted and everything. :D
After we ate, we walked over to the Balloon Park to see the balloon glow at dark. It was pretty cool, but I have to say the hype about balloon glow made it sound lots cooler than it really was, but maybe I went on the wrong night. Don't get me wrong, it was really cool! I've never been so close to a hot air balloon before.
It was a special shapes night for the glow. Crazy how these things actually fly, isn't it?
This was fun! We stopped and watched them blow up the sun. We were seriously right there next to the crew while they blew it full of air and then torched it full of heat. It's amazing how quickly it rises when they start torching it. It takes literally minutes.
And this was the beginning of the next morning. James's work sent a bunch of the employees to the Gondola Club for breakfast and a nice view of the show as a competition reward.
James told me he wanted to be at the Balloon Park by 5:00AM and I thought, "Yeah right. Good luck getting me up." So he got up at 3:30AM and I got up at 4:00AM and we actually left by 4:30AM. I'm writing this down in case it's disputed later in life. And we got to the FREEZING Balloon Park by 5:00AM. They don't even start serving breakfast until 6:00AM by the way.
So, we got some hot chocolate and sat and froze while we waited in the dark. In case you hadn't guessed yet, I was not in the happiest of moods - I wasn't angry or anything, but I was trying to let James know how ridiculous it was that we got there so stinking early. Then I looked out on the horizon and saw the biggest line of car lights I've seen in years just sitting out there waiting to get through traffic and into the Park. Holy cow! And, I humbled myself and admitted he was right about getting there so early. Some people we talked to sat on the highway for up to three hours waiting to get in. Sick, huh?
This balloon was the very first guy to leave. He has a special name but I can't remember it. Basically one balloon leaves very first to verify conditions - they have to be perfect, see... and then a group of about ten balloons leave shortly after while a marching band plays the Star Spangled Banner and it's basically the grand opening of the day. Someone told us that it's a huge honor to be part of that first group - they have a name too but I forget that as well. I'll find out later. Anyway, after that group goes, then they start blowing up balloons like crazy!! And you can walk down around them and almost be completely a part of it if you're not careful. :D
Here's what it looks like on the ground. It's extremely deceiving and unreal because there will be an entire row or two that blow up their balloons and it seems like that's where all the excitement is and as soon as you're in the thick of it, they take off and there's nothing left. So, you stand and debate whether you want to walk several hundred feet over to the next area to be in the thick again before heading that way. Then as you're half-way there, the other area's balloons are already taking off and you turn around to see where you just were, and it's full of new balloons already filling up. It was really dizzying. I don't know where they all came from so fast. They seemed to just grow from the ground suddenly - and lots of them!
This was part of the Gondola Club. It was so nice to have access to the Club for my first time. Now I know how to prepare for next time when I don't want to pay as much but don't want to freeze. I'll bring more blankets, chairs, and thermoses of hot chocolate.
After it was all over, we walked around for a little while and shopped the craft stands and tents. Finally, we got home at about 11:00AM and went back to bed. :D Haha! There were lots of people at church the next day "recovering" from Balloon Fiesta. What a funny experience so unique to Albuquerque! I loved it!
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