First off, let me say that if you've never been to Albuquerque's International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta, YOU SHOULD GO! It's amazing, no matter how many times you've seen it before. Albuquerque's fiesta is the largest one in the world, usually hosting 750 or more different balloons -- and almost 100 of them special shapes. This year they had record attendance -- over 850,000 people came!
The fiesta week is made up of various events, including mass ascensions (all balloons lifting off), special shapes ascensions, and balloon glows (at night). One of my personal favorites is the special shapes ascension they have on Thursday and Friday mornings. We got up bright and early on Thursday morning and got to the balloon fiesta park before dark. Our boys didn't know what to think of the cold weather!
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| Snug as a bug in a rug :) |
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| Ian with Grammy and Papa. Thanks for taking the morning off work,Papa, so you could be there with us! |
Due to some wind that morning, the balloons were not able to take off, but they did all inflate and just stay "tethered" at their spots. This made for some great photo op's of each balloon. Ian had fun watching the whole process -- from cold inflating with a fan to heating the air with a burner to watching the balloon rise.
It was fun to watch the sun rise as we watched the balloons inflate.
Yes, I know that this is about a million pictures, but each balloon is so unique! (No wonder the balloon fiesta was one of the most photographed events in the world back when there was film and they could actually count how many pictures people were taking.)
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| Chief Responder - from New York |
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| Coco the Clown - from Missouri |
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| Tic Toc - from Brazil |
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| Scuba Diver - from Brazil |
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| Squirt - from Australia |
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| one of my personal favorites ... Little Inspector from Brazil |
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| a family pose in front of the bees -- from Vermont |
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| a family shot in front of LadySun - from France |
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| Pencil Boy from Nevada -- see the balloons in his glasses? So cute! |
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| Planet Earth - from New Mexico with Coco the Clown (Missouri) |
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| Basketball (from Brazil), Rocket Boy (from Brazil), and Farm Chicken (from Brazil) |
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| Lilly Little Bee (from Vermont) |
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| another favorite ... Hummingbird (from Brazil) |
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| Pigasus (from Texas) |
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| Gizzmo (from Texas) |
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| Gizzmo, Pumpkinhead (from Arizona), Noah's Ark, the bear, and the hummingbird |
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| This is the only shot that I got of Elvis, the balloon on the far right -- called "Aaron" (from Canada0 |
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| another hummingbird shot |
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| Princess Carriage (Brazil) |
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| Arky (Oregon) |
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| Ian with the Gizzmo balloon mascot. The mascot handed out their balloon trading cards, which Ian was excited to collect from various pilots. |
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| Ian with one of the "zebras," the volunteers that direct balloon traffic (and tell pilots when it is safe to inflate/deflate and ascend) |
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| Center Stage (New Mexico) |
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| Little Angel (Brazil) and Yellow Jacket (Brazil) |
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| Ian getting a trading card from one of the pilots |
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| American Rocket (Indiana), Ham-let (Florida), owl |
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| Koshare Gallup (New Mexico) |
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| Sarah the Witch (California) |
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| more zebras |
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| Shroom with a View (New Mexico) |
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| Betty (New Mexico) |
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| Fire Engine (Germany), Yellow Car (Gerrmany), Buzzy (Missouri), Gus T. Guppy (Minnesota) |
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| same as above and Jack (Kansas), Annie the Ladybug (New York), Eddie & Rickenbacker (Georgia) |
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| Fire Engine (Germany) |
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| Pegleg Pete (Illinois) |
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| Mister Z (New Mexico) |
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| 3 Monkeys (Arizona) |
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| Ryan was tuckered out by the end of the morning! |
On Friday morning, we slept in a bit and didn't drive to the balloon fiesta park. Instead we drove near the interstate and just watched from afar. The weather was nice enough for the special shapes to lift off this morning. It was a nice perspective to see the whole horizon of balloons.
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| Oggy the Friendly Dragon (Indiana), Smokey Bear (New Mexico), Sahuaro Grande Dude (Arizona) |
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| all bundled up looking at balloons! |
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| Old Lady and the Shoe (Texas), Little Wizard (Brazil), Triple Clown (Brazil) |
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| Ryan was very intrigued by the balloons |
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| Little Wizard & Farm Chicken |
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| Angry Bird (New Mexico) |
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| Cosmos 1 (Texas) |
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| Miss Daisy (South Carolina), Sunny Boy (Ohio) |
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| Sunday Cruise (New Mexico), Uncle Sam (South Dakota) |
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| I love our family shadow on the road! The inflated balloon Ian brought added a nice touch :) |
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| Ian may have been just as interested in the dirt this morning as the balloons. Ha! |
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| A full sky of balloons! |
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| Cameron Doll (Great Britain) |
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| Doesn't it look like Rocket Boy is sitting on another balloons? So funny! |
Are you convinced that you need to go to the balloon fiesta next year? If not, stay tuned for the next post with more pictures. :)
3 comments:
Oh, this is amazing!! I have always loved hot air balloons so going to this festival is on my "bucket list". So fun!!! (and I love that pic of Ryan looking up!)
Thanks for sharing where the balloons are from... I guess I didn't realize the high percentage of ones that are international. Learned something new! :)
You HAVE to go, Aliceson! You'd love it! You'd love a ride, too ... so peaceful and beautiful and amazing!
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