Balloon Fiesta

On Friday evening, we attended the Albuquerque
International Balloon Fiesta.
http://www.balloonfiesta.com/
It's a yearly event attended by thousands of
people from around the world. We wanted to
see the "Special Shapes" balloons and Friday
night they had something called a "Glowdeo".
This is when they wait until dark, and fire up
the gas flames inside the balloons, illuminating
the entire balloon.


It took a while to get started. Since Wells Fargo
sponsors the Glowdeo, they get to inflate their
balloons first. They took a little longer than
expected, but when everyone else was allowed
to inflate, suddenly there were 50 - 75 different
balloons of all shapes across a huge field.


One really nice thing about the Fiesta is that
everyone was able to go right out into the field,
talk to the balloon crews and get a good idea
of what it's like to be a balloonist. We spoke to
one person who told us that without the basket,
their balloon alone weighed 800 pounds!
After the Glowdeo, they had a great fireworks
show...one of the best I've seen. Overall, it was
a really good time for everyone, especially families.
The people at the Fiesta, both organizers and
attendees were really friendly and outgoing and
we'll go back again.