I took Thursday and Friday off to attend the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta with Ab and the kids. Jamie from work pushed me to go (I had resisted the last few years). It was a short 7 hour drive down to the Tamaya Hyatt on the Tamayame Indian reservation. What a beautiful location! Since we had to get up at 4:30 am (!) the next morning to get to the Balloon Fiesta, we decided to stay in and have dinner at the Santa Ana Cafe in the hotel. The kids were just about to melt down mode so dinner wasn't as enjoyable as it could have been.
The next morning (Friday) we got up at 4:30 and met the rest of the group in the lobby for the caravan over to the Balloon Fiesta Park. Since we were corporate sponsors, we got VIP passes, close in parking and a tent with a catered Breakfast...not sure I'd want to do it any other way. We walked down onto the field to watch the shape balloons be filled with air and launched. Then Abby got the call to go ride in a balloon! The kids were not happy that Mommy left them but Dad was able to persevere and keep them mildly happy with the launching of the shape balloons. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera so I couldn't take pictures of all of the different shape balloons while Abby was flying.
There were over 750 registered balloons for the event.
Abby's Balloon being blown up.
Just about ready to launch.
Wacky balloon initiation for first time fliers. (more on balloon culture later...)
Sandia Peak glowing in the morning.
After a happy reunion of Mommy and children, we walked the festival next to the field. There was every kind of junk food you can think of; corn dogs, burritos, indian tacos, turkey legs, hamburgers, mini donuts and on and on and on. It must have been a mile long. Of course we had to buy some cheap souvenirs for the boys: a beach ball like balloon and a balloon necklace... $10 but
totally worth it. At the end of junk food and souvenir hell row was a chainsaw carving competition. I'm not sure what chainsaws have to do with balloons but it was cool to watch for about 23 seconds.
Starved and cranky we headed back to the hotel with a stop for food at
The Range Cafe in Bernalillio, NM. I definitely recommend this place. Ab had some excellent enchiladas and I had some out of this world chile rellenos. Full bellies, we headed to the hotel for a siesta. The boys didn't cooperate and we ended up skipping the much needed nap for some pool time. The pool has this awesome 3 story tube slide that sends you at about mach 3 in a corkscrew to the pool. I rode it several times. We were only in the pool for about 30 minutes before we had to get out and get ready for the night activities at the Balloon field.
There was a glow scheduled for the evening but there was too much wind and it was canceled. Luckily they moved the firework show earlier...although it was only 7:30 pm, it felt like 11:30 pm. The boys were beyond cranky by the time we got back to the hotel. After we got the boys down, I was able to sneak out to the hotel bar and catch the Rockies - D-Back 1st playoff game (They won!). I only had one drink (it cost me $24) and I was done.
Saturday morning started much like Friday. We thought about sleeping in but decided to go anyway after asking Arjen if he wanted to go. "Yup." It was lucky that we did go because I got to go up in the balloon this time. I rode with guy Ian who was in the Air Force stationed out of North Carolina. Definitely well qualified to be flying a balloon in my book. He had grown up around the fiesta and decided a few years ago that he should get into flying the balloons.
Dawn Patrol at the main field.
The chaos of all the balloons getting ready to launch.
Ian heating the air in his balloon.
Skwaaaaawk...We're going to fly hot air balloons today.
Two of many shaped balloons at the Fiesta. We leap frogged over the Turkey when we "splashed and dashed" in the Rio Grande River.
Looking back from where we launched. (The cleared circle at the bottom left is where we launched from.
Holy Balloons Batman!!
"Splash and Dash" in the Rio Grande.
Flying over Cordera.
We flew for over an hour and a half before landing in a family's yard in Cordera on the West side of Albuquerque. I didn't know that a beautiful spot like this existed in Albuquerque. I thought that after we packed up the balloon we would just go back to the field. Nope. We had to go to a gas station to get ice and hang out for 20 minutes. After the gas station we had to go to a bank so Ian's dad could get cash...after waiting in line for another 20 minutes to talk to a teller. Hello, ATM? Meanwhile, Shelly (a customer of ours) and I were hanging out with the balloon team. This is where I will talk about balloon culture:
These
people are a little different. From what I can tell, it's mostly a family thing and it runs for generations. They live to fly balloons. Anyone that gets up at 4:00 in the morning on a regular basis has to be a little different. The only way to fully understand what I'm doing a really bad job of explaining is to experience it yourself. Trust me, it's kind of weird.
We finally got back to the hotel at about noon and we were all completely exhausted. A quick bite to eat at the pool restaurant and it was nap time for all of us. The boys slept until about 4:00pm and we decided to skip Saturday night's festivities. Later we would find out that the "glow" happened and it was pretty cool. Oh well. Instead, we decided to have a little pool time and go out to eat.
I got the name of a restaurant from the concierge but it was not what we were looking for. On the way to the recommended restaurant we passed a brewery restaurant in Cordera that just opened. "Bingo" I thought, "This will be perfect". Nope, it was really f-ing weird. I'd post a link to the place, but they don't have one and I don't think this place is going to last long. All of the tables, bars and bar backs were granite. The place was fixtured on the high end. The beer was marginal and the food was even more marginal. To make the place even more weird, we had
Calamity Jane's cousin talking to us from the bar. Her degenerate boyfriend was giving our kids toys to play with and she was telling him "..don't distract the little ones from their dinner... I 'member when my son was that age and he was a real shit...now he's got one and I hope he gits it like I did..." Yikes! I felt like I was in the "
Twilight Zone".
Ab and I got the kids down and decided to drink some wine on our porch behind our room. It was the first time the two of us had got to hang out without the kids. After a glass each we called it a night and slept in until 6:00 am when Arjen woke up.
A short 8 hour ride back (not sure why it took longer to get back) and we were home. It's good to be home.
