balloons galore

This is St. Francis Church in Santa Fe.

The porch where the local Indians sell their ware.  All of it is beautiful, but I didn't buy anything this time.

They have a new shopping area and an excursion train near old town Santa Fe.

This is some of the Special Shapes on Thursday morning. We're at the Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque. They couldn't fly that day because the wind was blowing too hard.  At least we got to see the balloons.

The balloons are first blown up with a huge fan and then they heat the air inside to get the envelope to stand erect. 

One of the cuter shapes.

This one's called "Little Pirate." He took forever to stand up.

Pete the Parrot Pirate

It is great because we can walk down amid the baskets and get startled by the propane burners coming on.

This was Friday morning.  the shapes got to fly as well as the other balloons.  The sky was alive with color. I for one couldn't stop smiling.  It's great!

The cow is the largest shape; it  almost covers a football field before it's blown up.  The Wells Fargo stagecoach is almost as big.

She, Airabelle, doesn't fly for very long because it takes a lot of propane to heat the balloon.

Wells Fargo doesn't go very far either.  It came down on the lawn in back of the balloon museum right next to our groups campsite.

The mushroom didn't go up at all that day.  But almost everyone else did

The Hummingbird is a new shape this year.

We are crossing the bridge over a drainage ditch toward our campsite.  Beautiful isn't it?  Pictures just doesn't do this justice.

The clown landed two rows behind us.

The balloons hung around for a long time.  The wind speed was almost nonexistent.  I sat in the co-pilots chair to watch and woke up about 30 minutes later and they were all landed. 

Friday night they had a Glowdeo.  The balloons are lit up by the flames in the dark.  It's quite lovely.

It is hard to get a photo of several balloons lit up all at once, but I sure had fun trying.  You can see Angry Bird ( another new shape.)

 

This is what it looks like from up above the field through our windshield.

This morning was the last mass ascension. At least 500 balloons were up in the air at one time. There is a wall of balloon tops all getting ready to take off.

A bunch of people walk the basket to a clearing and a ref, called a zebra, gives the signal to go up.

Look at the "wall" behind this basket.

Up up and away.

These are the kissing bees.  They have been at the Fiesta for years.

 

We are on the other side of Albuquerque tonight.  We are worn out.  The balloon field is one mile long and we must have walked it 8 or 10 time in the four days we were there.  Tomorrow we plan on doing some sight seeing.  Maybe Old Town. 

We'll see you all in a week or so. 

Love, Mom and Dad