This was the weekend of our town’s annual Balloon Festival. The timing was never right for us to actually go to the festival location to see the balloons filling up. But Saturday night, after supper, we decided to take an impromptu drive to see if we could “catch” a balloon, by which I mean find one landing. When I told him where we were going Simon excitedly asked me if he should bring his bug catching net to capture the balloon with. I explained that his net was a bit too small, and he would see why.
It didn’t take long to find a balloon touching down, and we found one descending into the parking lot at the local mall. We pulled our car into a parking space, and got out to join the gathering crowd as the balloon team managed the deflating balloon. Simon was absolutely thrilled to witness this. There were other balloons, still making their way across the sky, as well as a group of powered paragliders zipping overhead. It was definitely a spectacle.
Despite the crazy traffic that it causes, I am always glad every year to live in a town that has this event. Many balloonists arrive early, and fly their balloons over the city throughout the week. It makes a quick walk to the store seem magical, when a giant balloon is coasting over your head. Like seeing a rainbow, it never fails to bring out my inner child when I spot a hot air balloon in the middle of my day.
