Balloons

Oh how I miss you.

Picture this: It's 5:30 in the morning and your alarm has just gone off. Normally this is not a good thing but today is different. You get up and drive to the mall to catch a bus which takes you all the way across Albuquerque to Balloon Fiesta Park. The city is just waking up and it's cold. And then you see hundreds of balloons spread out across the Park in various stages of set-up and taking off. For the next 4 hours you watch balloons get laid out, blown up, and then take off.

Alternative: It's about 7:00 at night and again it's cold. You again drive to the mall to take a bus to Balloon Fiesta Park. Tonight when you get there however the balloons only get blown up, they do not take off. And you get to wander through the balloons and watch while lit propane gets pumped into their insides lighting them somewhat like a glowing pumpkin.

They're massive and such fun shapes. Not just the normal balloon shape or the skinnier racing shape, but special shapes too, like the Shoe from the old woman who lived in a shoe, the haunted house, smokey the bear, the bees (a girl and boy)... And then you have the smells of the one-of-a-kind breakfast burritos that only New Mexico can truly make, and doughnuts and funnel cake, coffee, hot chocolate, basically everything good in life. These are all the things I miss right now. This is the first year I've missed it. Ah well, at least I have Kara to text me pictures of it :).