Fun In Albuquerque

Our friend Karen from Orlando arrived yesterday. We picked her up at the airport, had a very late lunch at one of the hundreds of Mexican restaurants and came home. The Sandia Mountains lit up bright pink at sunset while the women were out for a walk. Afterward the prudent thing to do was to go to bed early in preparation for our 4:30 wake-up call for the Balloon Fiesta.

The Park-And-Ride lot was less than a mile away. We arrived there at 5:30, boarded a school bus and headed for Fiesta Park. First order of business: Carmen was told by locals to be sure and have a Breakfast Burrito. She and Karen have an amendment to that rule: DON'T have a Breakfast Burrito. Second: buy blankets and gloves at the Walgreen's tent. It was COLD!

A bunch of balloons were inflating as we arrived in time for the Morning Glow. As soon as they were standing ready to launch, the Master of Ceremonies (who could talk nonstop about balloons for hours at a stretch- we can vouch for that) called for an "all burn," and all the balloons lit up with a burst of flame. Then M.C. Yammer called for a "flicker burn." They all did short blasts to light each balloon for a second per blast. This went on for a while as balloon after balloon rose into the still-dark sky and did bright burns on command until they had drifted far away.

Meanwhile, many hundreds more balloons were being inflated. By the time the sun came over the Sandia Mountains, the sky was packed with bright colors. The Darth Vader balloon went up to loud cheers. The Creamland Dairy cow took off. Nemo, Pepe Le Pew, Humpty Dumpty and a couple of bees became airborne. By 8:30, they were pretty much all up- all five hundred or so.

We left and went to breakfast, came home and took a nap. Arthur and Bethany from Boston called about 2:00 to arrange meeting up for a very late lunch at a Mexican restaurant in Old Town before we all went back for the evening Fiesta Festivities. There wasn't a balloon in sight when we arrived this time. There were probably fifteen kites in the air, and the balloon crews were arriving on the field, unpacking and setting up for the Evening Magic Glow. Within an hour there were about a hundred balloons standing, tethered, waiting for dusk. Before dusk, however, a gusty breeze kicked up. The balloons all began flailing back and forth, falling over and deflating. Soon the call was made to abandon the glow show except for the "candlesticks," the gas flamers shooting fire high in the dark sky without balloons on top. When they ended that show, we left as the moved-up fireworks began. Arthur and Bethany went back to their Bed And Breakfast, and we came home. I downloaded 128 new pictures onto my computer, fired up Norton to chase some malware out of my Internet Explorer, and here I am at last, after two days cut off from email, Facebook and Cat Juggler. It's good to be back.