Hot Air Balloon Festival

This past Saturday night, we went to the 5th annual Hot Air Balloon Festival at one of the local community colleges here. We had a great time. Gracie got to climb a rock wall, watch a dog show, and get her face painted like a pink tiger! She LOVES getting her face painted and I thought the lady did an excellent job. It literally took her about 3 or 4 minutes to do Gracie's whole face! She was awesome. We waited in line a little over 30 minutes to get her face painted and the line was as long when we left the tent and still as long when we left the whole show! Gracie felt like a little celebrity. She is very shy around strangers, but not as a pink tiger. People were looking and pointing everywhere we went and she would gladly say thank you if they made a comment about her face. One lady even asked if her son could take a picture with her!! The publicity photographers also took a picture of her. She was in heaven!!

Gracie and I even got to ride in a hot air balloon! It was fun. Gracie was a little scared of the burner, but she made it through. The first thing she asked me when we got off was if her tiger face was still on. I assured her it was. All through the night, she kept asking me to take a picture of her so that she could see if it was still there:)

They had a lot of craft tents and live music playing through the afternoon and into the night. Then, about 8:00, they did what they call a "balloon glow". They play music with a lot of beat in it and they light their burners to the beat of the music. It was very cool! I attached a little bit of the video I took of it so you can see what I'm talking about. The only disappointing thing was that they originally were supposed to be flying when all of this was happening, but there was no wind, so they were just parked on the side of the pond. We had a great time, and I can't wait until they have it again next year!



Gracie and I are in this balloon on the right side.

Video of the Balloon Glow