balloon fiesta 2023

maybe a week or so ago, my partner and i went to the balloon fiesta, which is a yearly thing in new mexico. every year, a bunch of people come together to watch balloons lift into the air, starting before it gets light out. there are also other events that happen after, but i usually don't find anything that exciting going on then to be honest.

we left at like 3:30am to see these balloons. the dawn patrol, which is the first event, starts at like 5 or 6(?) (i can't remember), but so many people end up going that many of them (including us) park in a huge parking lot and ride a school bus full of people to the fiesta. the dawn patrol is basically a few balloons going up before it gets light outside.

you can get really close to the balloons. some people even touched them as they blew up. the balloons came form all over the world (if i'm remembering correctly), and some came in special shapes, too. many of the balloons look familiar if you've gone to the event in previous years.

lots of people came to see the funny cow. it was potentially the biggest balloon there. and two frog balloons rose right next to each other this time.

i don't know what "cream land" is, but it sure is... a name.

and those are probably the best pictures i got this year. it was hard to take pictures because there were lots of people walking in every direction at all times. it was fun, though. i'm hoping to go again next year if i'm still living here, which i'm assuming i will be at this point.