Balloon Fiesta

• One of the many memories that came to mind about living in Albuquerque was the balloon fiesta! What a treat! Hundreds, if not thousands, of balloons would gather for this event that took place over the course of two weeks. There would be regular balloons and special shaped balloons of every color and pattern. For weeks before and after this event, and especially during, we could frequently hear balloons traveling near our house and sometimes they would seem so close I would worry they would land on the house.
• As far as attendance at the fiesta went, we would always get up extremely early and head over to the balloon fiesta grounds. This was always long before dawn and there was always a competition to see who could find the “dawn patrol” balloon. This was a balloon that would head up before any of the other balloons to ensure that the conditions were good enough for other balloons to come up. Donald was convinced that it was the “Don patrol”.
• After we finally parked and took the bus over to the balloon fiesta field we would get our breakfast. Favorites included mini-cinnamon rolls dripping with warm, sticky, gooey frosting, green chili breakfast burritos, and of course warm, rich, chocolate-y hot cocoa that we could put whip cream on.
• It was always extremely cold the first week in October (when the fiesta started). Ok so maybe it wasn’t that cold, but it always seemed freezing. :) So we were always bundled up in our layers of warm coats and gloves and hats and scarves.
• During the fiesta there are men and women to regulate all the comings and goings of balloons. These people are dressed in black and white striped uniforms, kinda like the type that referees wear. These regulators have received the nickname of zebras and some even wear zebra striped clothes. :) But you’d better look out for them because it can be slightly deafening if they blow their whistles right beside you. Not that I know from experience or anything…
• One of the things that was awesome about the balloon fiesta was being able to get up close and personal with the balloons and their pilots. You could always watch them lay out their balloon and fill it with hot air. Some might even let you touch the balloons, but it was always cool to see how huge the balloons really are.
• We had lived in Albuquerque for a long time before we all got to go on a balloon ride as a family. I believe it was the October before we moved from Albuquerque that we did so. I remember one of the boys folded a paper airplane and threw it over the side of the balloon basket and it circled around us several times before it changed course. It was cool! :)
• A couple times during the balloon fiesta there is an evening event called the night glow. For this event all the balloon crews fill up the balloons and then tether their balloons to the ground. Since it’s dark it’s kind of hard to see the balloons like this. But then the magic happens. Over the loudspeakers blasts some fun music with a strong beat. The crews then light up in beat with the music. It’s like musical lights and it was one of my favorites. Lesley and I would always convince mom to buy us the glow sticks and we’d dance along to the music. Once again we would usually get hot chocolate to keep us warm. Oh so much fun! Since I love dancing and music this was so very fun for me, although I don’t think my brothers enjoyed it like I did. :)
• During the balloon fiesta there were several days schedules as “mass ascension” days. This was when the most balloons launched from the field. As a child it seemed like thousands of balloons would take off in wave after wave. As soon as one balloon had launched, another would start laying out to take their place. For hours balloons would keep taking off. It was probably more like hundreds of balloons, but it felt like there were much much more than that. There was the mass ascension day for regular shaped balloons and then there was also the special shaped balloon mass ascension day. That was one day we tried not to miss. There were always so many cool shaped balloons. Lesley’s favorite was a piggy bank shaped pig named Miss Penny. Lesley was quite disappointed to find out that in recent years this balloon has been retired. I remember Adam always liked the Creamland cow and Chris liked the Darth Vader head. My favorites included the sunshine with sunglasses and the Tweety Bird balloon. Mommy and Papa like the two bee balloons that flew together. They are actually two separate balloons, but they fly together and the pilots are really amazing to keep them together. There were some balloons that were too special in their shapes and rarely made it off the ground. One was a wizard that was ginormous. The other was a coordinating purple dragon that was just too intricate. By the time the air made it to every nook and cranny of those balloons, the air wasn’t hot anymore and the balloons never flew. Plus they were just huge. But they were cool to look at and we always secretly hoped that they would somehow manage to take off.
• One memory that is linked with balloon fiesta is when Keith and Allison and kids came out to visit us during the balloon fiesta period. We had so much fun with them. It was also when we announced to them (probably the first of the extended family) that we were moving from Albuquerque to the Philippines.