Space Travel: Gulf Coast Balloon Festival

June 17th, 2007

Saturday morning, I was awakened by a phone call from my older sister. She informed me that there was a hot air balloon festival going on in Foley, AL, and she wanted to know if I wanted to go. In my haze of recent wakefulness I couldn’t think of a reason not to go, so I agreed.

A few hours later, we set off on what was supposed to be about a 45 minute drive southeast, across the bay to Foley. However, the Father’s Day Weekend traffic (people on their way to Orange Beach, Gulf Shores, Pensacola, etc.) made the trip more like 2 hours. I was so glad when we finally got there. I didn’t see any balloons up though, so we walked around. They had arts & crafts vendors and games for the kids. Eventually there was live music.

Around 6 pm, teams began to inflate their balloons, and hot air balloons began flying in from the south. It was a breathtaking sight.

A sugarglider—my future pet.

Baby, the police horse.

The return of the “goober.”

Kids helping to pull out the canopy as the balloon inflates.

Flight.

.

I’ve seen two movies this weekend: Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer (Thursday night) and Nancy Drew (Sunday afternoon). The latter was pretty good. The former. . .well, let’s just say, I wasn’t expecting much, so I was entertained, save for the senseless ending.

And. ..I’m finally getting my new camera on Tuesday.

Entry Filed under: photography,travel