Up, Up and Away

So..... I wrote a great blog post yesterday, "saved" it and now it is nowhere to be found.  It was well written, slightly witty, full of beautiful photos and all it needed was a few finishing touches....you know, just like all of my posts.  Where did it go?  How will I ever repeat those words?  Ugh!  As luck would have it, I played in a golf tournament later that day and apparently my golf game ran away with my blog post.  I hope they are having a great time together.  For some reason all I could think of was a line in the song MacArthur's Park, "I don't think that I can take it, 'cause it took so long to bake it and I'll never have that recipe again....".  Here is the closest thing to the original recipe.

My sisters and I continued celebrating my significant birthday a couple of weeks ago and took a trip to Santa Fe and Albuquerque.  Planning a trip for/with other people always makes me second guess my choices. There are so many places to visit in this country, how can I choose just one!  I figured Santa Fe had enough to please all of us with it's culture, art, low humidity, fall like temperatures, good restaurants and beautiful scenery. Opening weekend of the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta was the icing on the cake. 

The Cathedral Balilica of St. Francis of Assisi 

Sculptures of the wild southwest!

I did not let my sisters know all of the details of attending the fiesta until the last minute. Telling people they have to wake up at 4 a.m. is not usually met with excitement.  We dressed warmly and hit the road at 4:30 along with 60,000 other bleary eyed balloon revelers.  After sitting for 30 minutes and going only 2 miles I was very worried about jockeying for position on the field and hoping my sisters would not mutiny.  While sitting in the traffic I had that internal conversation where my sisters say, "You made us wake up at 4, drove us an hour away through all of this traffic only to stand elbow to elbow with thousands of other people in 40 degree temperatures for this?".   The fiesta needed to be spectacular for all the pressure I was putting on myself.

The balloons were just waking up when we finally got to the field!

It turns out that the location swallows up thousands of people and hundreds of balloons quite easily!  We roamed around the field armed and ready with our phones and cameras.  The Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta is one of the most photographed events in the country and I can personally attest to doing my part to keep it that way.  I must say it is awesome and beautiful when over 500 hot air balloons spread out over a massive field, inflate row by row and progressively launch for almost two hours.  So many colors against a perfectly clear blue sky!  It is a photographer's nirvana.

Balloons everywhere!

Penguins!  Lions! 

Cops and robbers!

We could not get enough!  The balloons are so much fun and definitely worth waking up before dawn.  I must admit that later the same day after we made it back to our apartment there was not much moving going on!  I had a private laugh and noted the irony when I crawled into bed for a nap and left my younger sisters covered with blankets watching football that Saturday.  After all, we had already put in over 8 hours by noon!  We did rally for sunset and dinner.

Fort Marcy view of Santa Fe down below

This view was only a short walk from our apartment.  

We enjoyed the morning launch so much that we decided to go back the next day for the evening "glow".  This time we breezed right in and enjoyed the smaller crowd of the night session.  There was a moment of panic when the yellow flag was flying and no balloons were inflating because of high winds but once the sun began to set the winds died down and we were treated to another colorful event.  The "glow" is followed by a laser show and fireworks extravaganza to close out the night.   Best part was that we did not have to wake up early and were home at a decent hour.  Slightly different than the sister trips when our night activities included going out and partying the night away.  We have fun no matter what we do!

5-4-3-2-1 Glow!

All in all, our trip to New Mexico was great!  We did forget that Santa Fe was at 7000 ft. altitude.... so we may or may not have experienced shortness of breath and our headaches were not due to late night drinking and partying....unlike other sister trips. 

Thanks for the all the birthday balloons!