Balloon Stampede

 Walla Walla hosts a Balloon Stampede every year.  We have enjoyed watching the hot air balloons rise in the early mornings.  On Friday morning we awoke at 5:45 AM to go down to Whitman's field to watch a launch.  And it was super cool and well worth the early morning effort.  Here we are snuggled up waiting for the balloon to get filled up. 

My mom is here visiting for Mother's Day!  Yeah!

 Peeking in to the balloon...

 Then it is filled and it is off!

 Up, Up, and Away!

 Then the big hype was the Saturday Nite Glow.  Well...we went and it was interesting and I would even say beautiful but ... mostly hype.  The Fairgrounds were covered with venders, venders and more venders.  The field was covered with 8 balloons which when the fire was lit, glowed beautifully.  But the crowd was over populated for our style and the hype was much better than the show.  I think in the future, we will just do the early morning thing where we can talk to the pilots and watch how the balloons really work!  Here are some nite glow pictures.