Balloon Fiesta!

We love going to Balloon Fiesta and are always excited to have visitors the first week of October because we have an excuse to get up before dawn, bundle up in our warmest coats, and watch 600 balloons rise against a deep blue Albuquerque sky.

This year, Uncle Rob and Aunt Laura came to visit, on their way back to Indiana after a conference in Las Vegas. We had a wonderful time visiting with them and Adelaida was particularly fond of both Uncle Rob and Aunt Laura. I'm sure Rob read at least a dozen books to Adelaida the first day he was here, and every time Adelaida needed to use the toilet, we'd hear "I want Aunt Laura to take me!" Best of all, Rob and Laura are pros at caring for twin infants (my cousins Amanda and Melanie will be turning 21 next week) and could pick up and comfort two babies as easily as Dale or I could.

On the Thursday morning of their visit, we woke up at 4am (well, I think we were already awake at 4 thanks to Cordelia and Estella), checked the weather, and decided it looked like a pretty good day for the balloons: no chance of rain, with (relatively) calm winds of 5-10 mph. We headed down to Balloon Fiesta Park and somehow managed to drive right into the park with no traffic delays -- a first for me at Balloon Fiesta!

Thursday morning was a "Special Shapes Rodeo" event, where special shapes balloons inflate and take off. There were about one hundred special shapes balloons this year, some as simple as a regular balloon with cat ears ...


... and some as elaborate as Noah's ark (which I somehow didn't get a picture of) and this panda.


By 7am, the pilots had decided that they weren't going to ascend -- we learned that "calm" to hot air balloon pilots means really really calm, like less than 5 mph, and it was just a bit too windy. But most of the balloons did inflate, so we got to see several amazing balloons inflate around us.

One of the first balloons to light up in the pre-dawn hours


The Noah's Ark crew prepares to unpack their balloon, with the sunrise over the mountains in the background. It takes a lot of people to get an elaborate balloon like Noah's Ark up in the air!


The sunrise turned the clouds amazing colors, oranges and purples and pinks


The Iwi The Kiwi balloon inflated about ten times faster than any other balloon -- rather than spreading a tarp, unpacking the balloon, checking the ropes, and slowly inflating, the Iwi The Kiwi crew just set up the still-packed balloon next to a giant fan and started blowing air into the balloon. The balloon inflated and ascended in record time.


Once Iwi The Kiwi was up, he was unfortunately not very stable. We were standing right next to the balloon, and it went upright ... then wobbled and started to fall on us! Laura grabbed Adelaida and ran back while I quickly maneuvered the stroller to a safe distance. Unfortunately the urgency with which we moved Adelaida frightened her and she was afraid of all the balloons falling on her after that.


Despite only about a hundred balloons inflating, they were packed pretty tightly on the field.



Estella and Cordelia enjoyed the balloon fiesta from the warmth of a stroller, covered by a blanket to keep the wind off them. This picture of Cordelia is typical of the babies' time at Balloon Fiesta: bundled up and asleep. I'm sure they will enjoy it next year, though!


We had a great time and really enjoyed Rob and Laura's visit. We are looking forward to another great Balloon Fiesta next year!