August 29, 2009

  • Balloon Fest Away!!!!

    First of all, let me mention that the Beast is better today. I decided that it had to be some bowel related issue that has passed one way or another. 'Nuff said on that matter.

    When we got up on Friday, we did the usual coffee, cereal breakfast and then more coffee out on the deck. The Beast had taken Baron out for a walk along the lake shore and then Baron plopped down in the sun on the deck in complete content. I was, of course, crocheting and the Beast, who needs to be *doing something* all the time, went down into the yard and started pulling some incredible weeds from around the deck. Since they hadn't been there since May and only the lawn had been cut in the interim, some of them were taller than the rail on the back deck....and that took four steps to get up to from the yard.

    After a while, he was bored and tired but wanted to get going to the Balloon Fest. I told him it didn't start until 3:30pm but he envisioned hordes of people getting there before us and taking all the good parking spots. Nothing I said could persuade him differently so off we went around 2:30pm. It took us all of about 5 minutes to get there and then find out we had gone to the wrong entrance for handicapped parking. So, off we went (another 5 minute drive) and we found out we were the very first in that parking area at least.

    It was a very short walk into the park and it was busy with the crafters putting up their wares, the food area trailers and tents getting food started for the opening. We managed to walk along the food court area to the picnic tent and found a vendor who had their trailer set and ready so the Beast got to eat some Polish sausage with a lot of stuff on it (like a hot dog, believe it or not ) and I had some funnel cake. We sat under the tent while we waited for everything to *open*. I was eager to get to the craft booths and see what all they had. I was hoping it wasn't as lame as some *events* are since this was a smaller community and they had lots of different craft clubs and stuff.

    The day was beautiful but was very windy and that concerned me. I knew that they don't usually take the balloons up in really windy weather. What I learned was that they don't even set them up on days like that. As I mentioned in my earlier blog, it's just too dangerous with the flames from the burner and the flimsy, non-retardant material used for the construction of the balloons. That part made the Beast VERY unhappy but I had a ball going through all the different craft vendors. They had some amazing things. You could even buy a *kit* for making your own cigar banjo. It was too cute. The owner had one made up that he played while the people went strolling by. There were all kinds of things for the kids....lots of clothes, including tie-dyed which seems to be making a comeback these days. The homemade quilts drew me like a magnet. I ended up buying two of them on Sunday. A patchwork one and one in a pattern I found out was called *windmills*. I just love them. The patchwork one was a king size that I am using on MY bed and the windmill one is on the guest room bed. It was a queen size one so it fits nicely on the full size bed in there. It covers the box springs and that I like much better than most full size ones fit. Those only seem to cover the mattress.

    Once we found out the balloons were not even going to be put up due to the wind, the Beast dragged me out of the park and we went home. Saturday was a much better day. It started out windy but the wind died down in the afternoon. We went to the event around 1pm and spent a lot of time just sitting around the large pond there that gave us a good view of many of the sites where the balloons are set up. We HAD seen where they trailered them on Friday before we left so we had a pretty good idea of the best area to be. This is going to be a rather long post because of some of the pics but let me assure you that there will be more tomorrow. Okay...here's a pic of one of the balloons while they are setting it up:

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    Here it is after it's fully inflated and sitting on the ground. It didn't go up in the air. We found out that they really only flew at 7am for the balloon races. Go figure! :
    IMG_1074

    Now just one more for your viewing pleasure from the *balloon glow*. This one catches a couple of them. :

    IMG_1086

    Okay...it's waaaaay past my bedtime and I have Chewlee here in a few hours. Love you all. More on the Balloon Fest tomorrow along with any current stuff that happens. Smile!

    Sorry about that second one.  I forgot to rotate it before I got it uploaded.  I'll try to redo it tomorrow.