Balloon Festival

On Saturday, Ryan and I went to the Centralia balloon festival. It was the first time I've ever seen a hot air balloon up close like that. We even got a chance to watch them inflate a balloon, which was pretty amazing. (The burners have to be horizontal at first to blow into the balloon. They're quite hot, so I'm amazed how they can blow into the balloon without scorching the grass, too.) As the balloon starts to lift off the ground, the person operating the burner has to lift the burner up to follow the balloon. Once the balloon is in the air, it has a tendancy to sway back and forth before it equalizes, so the operator has to continue to follow the path of the balloon. It was pretty interesting to watch. Since we were there at night, we got to watch the "balloon glow", where the balloons stayed tethered to the ground, and the "pilots" would light the burners, making the balloons glow. It was a neat sight to see.