I’ll be honest, before we started full-timing, I had no idea that there was such a thing as the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta.  I always loved the hot air balloon events that happened in my hometown as part of the Fourth of July festivities, and I’ve always dreamed of going on a hot air balloon ride, but I never really paid attention to huge hot air balloon events like this one.  Then my roadschool travel network, Fulltime Families, announced a rally at this year’s Balloon Fiesta, and we thought, “Let’s do it!”

The Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta is massive!  The launch field, where hundreds of balloons inflate and lift into the air, is equivalent to 56 football fields.  There are 547 registered pilots, representing 16 different countries.  96 of the balloons are special shapes, including the ever popular Darth Vader and Yoda.  Nearly 900,000 people attended last year’s event.

Our Fulltime Families group was given a special fenced in area for just our 48 families.  It is in a perfect location, with easy access to the launch field and amazing views of the balloons flying overhead.  Today, one balloon even landed just outside our fence and allowed many of the children to have tethered balloon rides!

Yesterday, Monday, we woke up in the morning to balloons filling the entire sky over our heads.  We marveled over that for awhile, then Character Queen and I walked over to the field to check things out up close.

Here are some of our photos from yesterday.  They’re somewhat in reverse order, but I’m not going to spend the time to get them all perfectly lined up!

 

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Other posts from the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta:

my hot air balloon ride!  Synchronicity

Synchronicity Part II

Balloon Fiesta – Special Shapes

my experience crewing:  Going To Work at the Balloon Fiesta