Plano Balloon Festival

Tonight was the first night of the Plano balloon festival, and we decided to go since the rest of the weekend is going to be a busy one for us. It probably would have been easier to go tomorrow because the traffic was a nightmare today on the way over, but we survived. It was my first experience trying to photograph balloons during the balloon glow, which was more difficult than I anticipated because they don't stay still and since it was dark, I needed to do long exposures. That meant I had a lot of blurry balloons, but I still managed to have a few shots I deemed acceptable for keeping. That's just how it is. Take 206 photos, keep 44 of them. Next year I would love to be one of the photographers with field access, but I am not sure how to go about gaining that access. I have some time to figure it out.

We ate supper at the festival, which meant  Kate, Yiayia, Nana and Bill all had a pretzel for supper. I opted for a turkey sandwich on wheat. I really wanted a corn dog...and funnel cake....but decided not to even go there. Later Kate and I had some yummy gelato.

We watched a skydiver jump from a hot air balloon and land on the field, which was apparently the first time they've ever had a one jump from an actual balloon rather than a small plane. I thought that was pretty cool. Then we watched one balloon launch and float away.

Once the sky diver landed it was time for all the balloons to inflate and just after 8 pm the balloon glow began. It didn't last long (I read it was really expensive to burn the fuels just for the heck of it) but as still beautiful. The balloons did a series of straight burns and then twinkly burns. Quite a pretty sight.

Suddenly, almost as quickly as it began, it was time to head back home. We probably spent more time in the truck today than we did at the actual festival, but it was worth it I believe. Kate seemed to love it and that's all that mattered.