The Balloon Fiesta Was Awesome!

Although it was another really long day, it was great!  Melissa said it was worth sitting in the airport all day yesterday.  We were up early and in the car by 6:30.  We had a layer of icy frost on the windshield and no scraper on hand so Melissa and I used credit cards to scrape the ice off.  Reminded me once again why I live in Florida.

 

It was a short ride to our Park and Ride lot but it was still dark out and we saw one sign for it but expected another and a little further down the road we decided that one sign was it.  I made a U-turn (I've always excelled at them) and went back, parked and quickly boarded a school bus (that too us all back a few years) were only on a few minutes before leaving.  The drive to the Fiesta Park took a while but even in the distance we could see the first balloons up checking the weather.  There were so many buses lined up and so many people and it was so cold, but it was still one of the best experiences yet.  There is no way to describe seeing a hundred balloons on the ground, in the air, fading off into the distance.  There were no restrictions, you could walk right up to any of the balloons.  Some never left the ground and some just went up and came down but they go in waves as they are so close together on the ground.  The last to go up were all of the normal lightbulb shaped ones.  They are also very pretty but most people like the shape ones.  I'll get them set up in my photo album you keep trying to open in and see. 

 

 

Once they all were in the air we walked around the exhibits.  There was a big arts and crafts building, fiesta memorabilia tents, sponsor tents and about a half mile of food and gift booths.  Once the crowd thinned out we got some lunch of arepas for everyone and Melissa and I shared chicken on a stick while Karen and Jean chose fried cheesecake.  This was the first time Karen and Jean had arepas and they were a hit.

 



Jean, Melissa and Karen
stagger out of the saloon

Everyone was still cold so we headed back to our bus loading zone and back to the car.  We thawed out on the drive and the sun was out and it was gradually warming nicely.  We parked at Old Town Albuquerque and we must have looked at jewelry and other Native American crafts in 20 shops.  We did our share of spending too so it was really fun.  We visited the San Felipe de Neri Mission, watched a wedding in the square and had a rest stop at the High Noon Saloon.  The margaritas were the best and we had chips with salsa, queso and guacamole.  Yum!  Karen was getting a little giddy and kept us entertained the rest of the afternoon.

 

Spiderman Pig Glowdeo

We made a brief stop back at the apartment and then left at 5:30 to the Park and Ride to head back to the Fiesta Park for the Glowdeo and fireworks.  It was nice but not nearly as impressive as this morning.  At least it was not as cold but there were tons of people walking around in the dark.  The only light was from the balloons when they would fire off the gas.  The dark colored balloons don't really glow but the lighter ones look really nice.  It was also nice to be near one for the heat!  As they started taking down the balloons we head to the food booths, but so did everyone else.  The lines were horrible but we spotted a Greek food booth and there was no one there, so luckily we all like Greek so we had a small dinner while watching the fireworks.

 

We had a short wait for the bus but we knew we would.  The ride back seemed really fast and everyone was totally pooped and ready to shower and get to bed.  I'm the real nightowl of the group so wanted to get today's event recorded for posterity!