Happy 40th Birthday, Adirondack Balloon Festival!

 

Look what I happened upon, in the park just a few blocks away from home yesterday!  It was the kickoff celebration of the 40th birthday of the Adirondack Balloon Festival, right in the town where I live.  That's about the biggest birthday cake I have EVER seen (below)!  

Is that man getting sucked into the bottom of the cake?

Look how big those candles are on the deflating cake!

My favorite photo - a view inside the deflating birthday cake

   

Imagine waking up to the sound of dragon breath (at least that's the way it always sounds to me) and looking out your window to see a hot air balloon floating down the center of your street.  When people ask me why my retired hubby and I don't move away to someplace more exciting, here's at least one good reason.

That's my house above!  Is that balloon about to land on my chimney?!

When I realized the morning winds had blown the balloons my way, (this was, by the way, an unscheduled launch to make up for the fact that yesterday's breeze kept most of the balloons on the ground), I threw some clothes on and grabbed my car keys and followed three balloons as they floated around my neighborhood, looking for a place to land.  If I was still teaching, I would have missed this early morning activity in my neighborhood.  This lovely colorful balloon landed right in the middle of a nearby street.  I think some people were going to be late for school and/or work this morning!  When the balloon crew deflated the balloon, they asked all of us who were watching to help hold it and squash it up tight to fit into its little pack, which was like a large cushy ottoman or beanbag chair when the balloon was all inside!  It was fun getting to help out.
 

By the way, I wrote about the balloon festival last year too, right here.  Check it out for more photos, and a little more information.

Tomorrow and Sunday morning, weather permitting, there will be major launches of over 100 balloons, with a balloon 'petting zoo' of specialty shaped animal balloons, including them a bumblebee, SpiderPig, a dinosaur, and more.  They challenge is, that to view these launches you need to be in your car to face the traffic to the local airport grounds at a ridiculously early hour - like 4:30 or 5am, as the balloons will all be off and flying before 7:00 if the winds are OK. You dress warm, wear mittens, and drink coca.  The airport is a hive of activity as the balloons begin to inflate absolutely everywhere.  It's a unique experience, just beautiful.

On another note, I am trying to figure out the new blogger format - I had refused to change and had stuck with the old easy format despite its limitations.  But yesterday I opened blogger to find that the old format had finally disappeared.  So far I find it a struggle arranging photos and text the way I want, but hopefully when I get used to it it will be better, right?

Meanwhile, it's been a few days about birthdays!  While the balloon festival celebrates it's 40th, I'm getting ready to celebrate my 60th in a grand way.  My college roomie and I celebrated our 18th birthdays together our freshman year, shortly after we met.  Ever since, she has lived on the opposite coast and we have seen each other only rarely, but have stayed friends.  We decided to celebrate the big 6-0 together and in 2 weeks the two of us will meet in Las Vegas for the first time EVER! As of two days ago, all reservations are made and plane tickets are purchased.  Now, if I could just figure out how to lose 10 pounds in as many days.... 

Views from a hot air balloon festival!

There's an annual hot air balloon festival here. My first fall, I lived in a second floor apartment with a porch, and a balloon flew over practically within touching distance. I'd never seen one up close before, or heard one. And let me tell you, the HEARING part surprised me. The sound of a hot air balloon firing its burner sounds like what I always imagined the sound of dragon's breath would be. Awesome. Simply awesome.

Why did my mysterious eyeball photo rotate? Darn. Anyhow, it was shot looking up into a balloon. It looked so cool.

The first time I attended the balloon festival (and every subsequent time) I was amazed. In the early dusk, before the sun rises, watching rainbow colored mountains grow before your eyes - aaaah. If you ever get a chance to go to a balloon festival, it's worth the early morning launch times. Hot air balloons are SO much bigger and prettier than you'd ever imagine.
I shot this photo out of the window of my car, on the way home from the grocery store. I've been living here so many years sometimes I forget the balloon festival is in town. Tonight the winds were blowing wrong, toward the mountain, so the balloons stayed tethered and didn't fly. I was able to park and watch them, firing their burners, taking kids into their baskets, and eventually deflating and packing up, which was pretty cool to watch too. I didn't get to see the early morning launch at the airport, with over 100 balloons, some specialty shapes, or the moonglow over the lake, but I'm glad I stopped at the park for the last scheduled launch of the festival.
This is a former teacher in my district, a couple of years retired, in the basket of a balloon that her business (a Lake George ice cream shop) sponsors.