Guess what we did today?

We went to the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta!!

It was a spur-of-the-moment decision to come out to New Mexico when we were at Balmorhea and Brian overheard some Speedo-wearing guy there telling some other random people about how he was going to go to the Balloon Fiesta. As it turns out, Brian had quite the fascination with hot air balloons as a child and has always dreamed of going to the Balloon Fiesta (the largest balloon festival in the world)! Who knew? And the timing all worked out perfectly, so we went today. Yay!!

The Balloon Fiesta is a big deal, y’all. We had to get up at 4am (not kidding) and drive to a random shopping mall parking lot, leave Pearl, and board Albuquerque School District yellow school buses (notably the second time in just a few months we’ve been inside a school bus), which eventually took us to the Balloon Fiesta Park. Oh, and did I mention it was really, really cold? Because it was. And also it was pitch black.

However, just a few minutes after we arrived at the park, Dawn Patrol began!!

Dawn Patrol

The Dawn Patrol began at Balloon Fiesta in 1978, when two California balloonists developed position lighting systems that allowed them to fly at night. Dawn Patrol pilots take off before sunrise and fly until it is light enough to see landing sites. Fellow balloonists appreciate the Dawn Patrol because they can watch the balloons and get an early idea of wind speeds and directions different altitudes.

There was a little break after Dawn Patrol while we all waited for the sun to come up and whatnot, so we went and got funnel cakes and hot chocolate for breakfast, browsed the souvenir tents, and tried not to freeze (with little success). We didn’t have to wait very long before Mass Ascension began – about 600 hot air balloons all inflating and rising together over about two hours. It was truly amazing! We had some gray and cloudy skies, but the weather didn’t diminish the experience at all.

Here is a snippet of the many, many videos I took on my iPhone during the ascension.

But wait!! Believe it or not, that’s not all. After we got out of the park (which, incidentally, took around two hours from field to Pearl’s door — come on, Albuquerque International Balloon Festival), we drove to White Sands National Monument! And we saw a giant pistachio on the way!

Unfortunately, by the time we arrived at White Sands, it was raining (?!) (not the first time we have brought rain to the desert), plus we were exhausted from our early morning and everything, so we didn’t spend a lot of time there. It was a beautiful and interesting landscape in spite of the rain, though.

We had initially toyed with the idea of sledding down the sides of the dunes (which is one of the main activities to do at White Sands), but the rain made that less appealing. It didn’t stop these little girls, though!

White Sands is one of the few national parks where you can pretty much go wherever you want. There are a couple of trails, but you are more than welcome to walk all over the dunes and touch things and kick sand around and stuff.

By the time we finished up there, we were both pretty much about to collapse, so we got set up as quickly as we could at the Ramada in Las Cruces, N.M. (which is very nice — much nicer than how we usually roll). Tomorrow, we head back to Texas!

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