Balloon Fiesta wrapped up on Sunday morning—here's the last roundup of highlights!
Special Shapes Rodeo, Thursday Morning
Albuquerque Public Schools schedule fall break for Thursday and Friday of Balloon Fiesta, so Gracie, Bridget and I dragged ourselves out of bed at 3:45 am to head over for the Special Shapes Rodeo/mass ascension before they had gymnastics (Maddie slept in, Matt was traveling). Some 500 regularly shaped balloons were registered this year and a little over 100 special shapes balloons were registered. Some of them were flying last weekend, but there were a whole bunch we hadn't seen yet on Thursday morning.
We were wandering around after Dawn Patrol and headed toward El-Fonz, the first balloon to launch, when I happened to just casually look over my shoulder and realize Gracie, Bridget and I were accidentally heading up the Star Wars parade. We jumped about 17 feet in the air to get out of the way, which is why I think Princess Leia is giggling in this photo.
El Fonz! He got to launch with the American flag.
I spotted Buzzy Bee on the far south end of the field and we hot-footed it over there before it launched so we could get a match-match picture. We officially have an Angry Bee photo collection now, hee.
You turn your back to chase down an angry bee and when you turn around, this happens!
It's kind of surreal to see how big these balloons really are before they launch. Huge! We wondered how many places actually manufacture balloons in the world. It has to be kind of a niche market.
We were watched a lot at the Special Shapes Rodeo.
We feared poor Lottie Dottie Chicken might be getting taken advantage of here. TriBird looks a little pushy, yes?
It was fun to see the Bee Kiss 🐝❤️🐝
This doesn't even do it justice. I am pretty sure I need to secure a hot air balloon ride during next year's Balloon Fiesta—that might help do it justice. Ha!
Saturday Night Glow: Camp Dillow-Karahalis, Fall 2015
File under "you know you're in New Mexico" when...
The Karahalises joined us for the second weekend of Balloon Fiesta—I love when plans hatched seven months before work out! [Note: I feel we've lived seven years since March 2015, not just seven months... but I digress.] It was a beautiful afternoon and evening; because it was the last glow it seemed like there were 20x the people there, though.
Note to self for next year, if we're still here next year: bring a kite! That was a good idea. And possibly a football. I didn't notice the football untli I downloaded the pictures : )
I really need to make a list of all the places we've held Camp Dillow-Karahalis. These monkeys have done so much together in the last 12 years, from making paper-mâché sheep at the Folklife Festival in Washington, D.C. to cheering on cowboys at Cheyenne Frontier Days to hot air balloons, with many adventures in between. I'm so happy to report they all six still get along marvelously.
The glow was way less haphazard and far more stunning than it was the first weekend, because the wind was much more cooperative. The owner of this balloon happened to catch the photo I posted of it on Instagram and commented, which was awfully fun! It's called "Lofty Idea."
We had a great spot for watching the balloons glow from all directions! They did it about four times, vs. almost once last weekend.
Earlier in the evening I marched up to the Canon balloon and asked for my own trading card. #canonfangirl The laser show was fun and the fireworks immediately after even better. Canon stood up the whole show because it was their party and they didn't have to deflate if they didn't want to. We got home about 9:20 or so, and decided it was best to pretend we were all taking a nice nap vs. going to bed for real, because WHOO BOY 3:45 am for the third time in a week for some people was not getting any easier. Nor was it easier for those doing it for the first time.
Sunday Morning Farewell Mass Ascension
The Dawn Patrol launched without a hitch and the rest of the field did not delay once the green flag was flying—it was fast this time around!
These penguins were LOST in transit sometime between when they were shipped in August and the last weekend of Balloon Fiesta, all the way from Great Britain (along with one of the largest hot air balloons in the world, a pirate ship). Can you even imagine? I would be less than pleased. Especially when the shipping company sent them a confirmation that they had arrived in Albuquerque (they had not).
It makes up for all the buildings being a shade of tan here.
Having seen the inner-workings of Cheyenne Frontier Days in 2010, 2011, and 2012, I know how much work goes into this kind of mostly-volunteer run event. Thank you to Balloon Fiesta for all the hard work. I will figure out something else to do with the other 1000 pictures I took besides posting them here : )
