Balloon Fiesta

Fall is our favorite time in Albuquerque. We had friends in town for the second week of Balloon Fiesta.
It was an unusually cold Fiesta this year. Friday before the mass ascension it rained all day and until about 3:30 am. Allie and the kids had been so excited. We went to the east side of the mountains Friday night and made hot chocolate in a campground shelter. It was SO cold. After we finished, we saw cars coming down from the peak with snow on top of them. We drove up the hill until we hit snow half way up at the ski area. The kids stuck their heads out of the window and tasted the first snow of the season. Snow made it down to about 7000' that night. Allie was so sad and prayed that it would stop raining. We didn't have as much faith as she did I guess. But she was right, it did stop and we made it the next morning:
Click on the photo above; sunrise on the snowy mountain with lenticular clouds flowing over them was spectacular.

Cold it was - we pulled out everything we could find:

The balloons launched a bit late and not all of them made it out to the soggy field. The clouds were thin however and it did eventually start to warm up.
After Frisbee practice we headed out. Ryan pushed the three boys back to the cars:



I hope you can join us next year...