We recently took a drive over to a hot air balloon festival, something I have wanted to do for a couple of years now. As we neared the entrance to the parking lot I could see the tops of balloons in the distance and became excited, we were almost there, I was finally going to get to see hot air balloons up close! 

We were greeted by a pair of balloons tied down for balloon rides which would go up about 30 feet. 

Hot Air Balloons

As we walked in I heard the announcer talking about the balloons that were being laid out on the airport runway. 

Balloon being inflated Before a balloon is inflated with hot air, they first blow a fan into it to open it all up with normal air. Then add in the hot air, and the balloon begins to slowly rise. 

Rainbow balloons inflating They keep it held down until a certain point, then the balloon eases into an upright position. 

A couple of minutes later they begin to rise off the ground, ready to begin their journey through the skies. 

The balloons are now at the mercy of the winds. The pilot can raise and lower the balloon, but has no control over where it heads. 

The balloons will be up in the air for around an hour, a chase car following them the entire way until they land. 

We saw a balloon basket setup, they were smaller than I thought, but they may have only had a small one setup for people to pose with as I heard later of someone taking a ride in one that held nine people. Of course when we posed Kaeden it was super sunny at the time so he's all squinty. 

I got a better photo of him later with a balloon launching in the background. He loved watching them. He's pointing at a few floating by behind me. 

I honestly never realized how large hot air balloons were until this festival.

 After all the balloons had been inflated and flown away, a giant birthday cake balloon appeared.

It floated near the ground for a while as the sun became low in the sky. 

I never knew that balloons have a quick release at the top to let the air out until they deflated the cake balloon. Then a team of people had to squeeze the air out of each candle and roll it up to put it away.  

Then a second balloon was inflated, and was used to demonstrate the glowing that would be taking place with multiple balloons later where they were lit up from the inside. 

They would pop bursts of flame up into the balloon. 

And the balloon would light up. It was fascinating to watch. 

Kaeden even was watching the display as they popped the bursts of flame into the balloon. 

It was getting dark as they brought out more balloons for the evening glow event. We decided it was getting late since we still had an hour drive home, so headed out early, getting a glimpse of this balloon that had just joined the evening glow as I rounded the last corner on the way to the car.