Hot Air Balloons

I had completely forgotten about the hot air balloon festival this year.  Dr. Peds was driving home from a conference in the Cities, and when he got home he mentioned that the balloons were actually all standing up!  I grabbed the only kid home at the time (everyone else was eating and watching a movie at the neighbor’s).  Mr. TOF had fallen asleep early because he was having a rough afternoon, but after a few minutes he was up and rolling, and we got in the car and drove down.  By the time we got there, no balloons! The wind had come up just a bit and they had to deflate them all.  Bummer.  Apparently there were hundreds of people when they were all standing up, but by the time we got there, the crowd had all left.  That meant that we had a lot of open space.  There was no wind at that point, and a rumor that they might try putting a few balloons up again later.

Mr. TOF and I walked around, watched a boat come in under the bridge, and listened to the army band play on the stage.  After it got dark, two brave balloon crews did stand their balloons up.  It was amazing, though, how just the tiniest little breeze caused them trouble.  We were excited to watch the process of inflating the balloons with powerful fans, and then the basket tipped to the side to heat up the air at the end before the balloon came right up.  Balloons glowing at night are gorgeous!

I’ve always been interested in hot air balloons.  I think they are just nifty.  When I was a really little girl, my favorite TV show was 3-2-1 Contact on PBS.  I loved 3-2-1 Contact.  My favorite character was the girl with the long blond hair.  I found all of the scientific episodes interesting, but my favorite one was the time when that girl got to ride in a hot air balloon, and then they explained all the science behind the molecules of air heating up and moving faster to keep the balloon rising.  I can STILL picture the diagrams and explanation of how it all worked on the TV screen.  I also loved the mystery that the Bloodhound Gand would solve using science at the end of each program.  Watching 3-2-1 Contact usually inspired me to go outside and pretend I was a scientist discovering how things worked.