" - Winnie the Pooh
Saga Balloon Fiesta
On 11/3, Roo, Owl and I ventured out for the Saga International Balloon Fiesta. I had never been to a balloon festival and this one only being an hour or so away by train seemed like a great place to start.
We took the express train and that turned out to be the best idea. We missed traffic and expressway closings and actually got to the festival with plenty of time to wander the "Carnival" balloons. These were the fun shapes that aren't competitive. They let us down on the field and we got to walk up and talk to the operators. There were a couple of American teams, even. They were giving out stickers and cards for the balloons and Roo collected a few. We got to see a couple be inflated - they lay them down and blow air into them with a fan, then they fire to heat it and it just rises up very quickly - it's an amazing process. They were land bound, but had to keep firing periodically to keep the balloons aloft. This was deemed "hot" and "scewy" so we tried to stay away when they were firing. Nevertheless, Roo still talks about the "fi-ah" and grabs the little commemorative booklet to flip through. Her favorites were the Honda robot balloon (Asimo was peeking out one side with his feet on the other), the "el-pant", and the "oc-puss".
There were a couple that just had the air blowing into them on the ground so you could walk inside to see them, but the lines were too long so we settled for running our hands along the outside.
We wandered through the rest of the festival, enjoying the matsuri foods (fresh yakisoba - YUM). Roo got to play in the jumping area for a bit. She did the ball pit and the simple bouncer. She loved jumping all around, and falling...adored the falling. I think we'll spend some time in the inflated area at the mall when we get home.
At 3pm, the day's competition started. This one was a self-paced launch, travel 3-6km and then touch down at your predetermined location. The self-paced launch was spectacular. The field went from bare to covered in people to covered in inflating balloons, to individual balloons picking up, to bare again in the space of 45 minutes. They must have launched close to a hundred balloons in that time. From the ones we watched that morning and afternoon, it takes about 15 minutes from the truck pulling up at the site to the balloon ready to be airborne. The launch and flight was just indescribable. I could get terribly addicted to watching them. They were beautiful. Roo loved waving at the ones that flew overhead and ooohing at the colors as they lifted off. Truly spectacular - I went through the entire camera card, which Chrys still teases me about.
After that, it was time to grab the train home. We took an earlier one from the balloon festival than we'd planned and it was packed so we were very happy to have not put it off. We missed only the night flights that only occur on weekends, but, hey, we have to have something to make us go to another one someday, right?
We took the express train and that turned out to be the best idea. We missed traffic and expressway closings and actually got to the festival with plenty of time to wander the "Carnival" balloons. These were the fun shapes that aren't competitive. They let us down on the field and we got to walk up and talk to the operators. There were a couple of American teams, even. They were giving out stickers and cards for the balloons and Roo collected a few. We got to see a couple be inflated - they lay them down and blow air into them with a fan, then they fire to heat it and it just rises up very quickly - it's an amazing process. They were land bound, but had to keep firing periodically to keep the balloons aloft. This was deemed "hot" and "scewy" so we tried to stay away when they were firing. Nevertheless, Roo still talks about the "fi-ah" and grabs the little commemorative booklet to flip through. Her favorites were the Honda robot balloon (Asimo was peeking out one side with his feet on the other), the "el-pant", and the "oc-puss".
There were a couple that just had the air blowing into them on the ground so you could walk inside to see them, but the lines were too long so we settled for running our hands along the outside.
We wandered through the rest of the festival, enjoying the matsuri foods (fresh yakisoba - YUM). Roo got to play in the jumping area for a bit. She did the ball pit and the simple bouncer. She loved jumping all around, and falling...adored the falling. I think we'll spend some time in the inflated area at the mall when we get home.
At 3pm, the day's competition started. This one was a self-paced launch, travel 3-6km and then touch down at your predetermined location. The self-paced launch was spectacular. The field went from bare to covered in people to covered in inflating balloons, to individual balloons picking up, to bare again in the space of 45 minutes. They must have launched close to a hundred balloons in that time. From the ones we watched that morning and afternoon, it takes about 15 minutes from the truck pulling up at the site to the balloon ready to be airborne. The launch and flight was just indescribable. I could get terribly addicted to watching them. They were beautiful. Roo loved waving at the ones that flew overhead and ooohing at the colors as they lifted off. Truly spectacular - I went through the entire camera card, which Chrys still teases me about.
After that, it was time to grab the train home. We took an earlier one from the balloon festival than we'd planned and it was packed so we were very happy to have not put it off. We missed only the night flights that only occur on weekends, but, hey, we have to have something to make us go to another one someday, right?
posted by Wynnie | 05:41
1 Comments:
And, if I'm not mistaken, Phoenix has a balloon festival of its own and so does Albuquerque! Relatives and balloons...what more could you ask for?
Love,
Mom
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