Plano Balloon Festival

This past weekend was the annual Plano Balloon Festival. On Saturday afternoon Tayler, Kati, her boyfriend Taylor, and I went to check it out. We had a great time! In addition to the hot air balloons, they had a team of skydivers who landed in the balloon launch field, and tons of vendors and food.

We had a spot right at the fence-line, so we were very close to the action! It was very interesting to watch; from the balloon crews (who seemed to make it a true family affair), to how the entire process works. None of us had ever been so close to these massive balloons before, it was definitely a unique experience.

At the 6pm balloon launch, we watched them unload all of their equipment, unroll the balloons, and all the way to them taking off. After those took off, the second round moved in. There were approximately 50 balloons in this group. They all set up to get ready for the "Balloon Glow" at 8pm. This is something I had always heard about, but never seen, until now. It is hard to put it into words, as they truly do not give it justice. The sounds, the fire, the colors.....it was all amazing. They spent about 45 minutes "lighting" up, sometimes in random spurts, sometimes all of them at one time. If you have never experienced this, I would highly suggest it!

We took tons of pictures (tons=170ish) with Tayler's camera. Unfortunately, my camera is in the sick bay, so I had to use Tayler's. I really wish I'd had my camera, as I would have been able to get some really great pictures. But, the ones we got aren't too bad.

Here are a "few" of the best pictures (remember...you can click on any picture to view it larger). At the bottom, I posted a slide show of the rest of the pictures, as there were just too many to post here individually. I will also be posting a video clip of the balloons flaming.