More Big Balloons

Hudson Hot Air Affair

Earlier this week one of my friends posted about the Hudson Hot Air Affair – which was an entire weekend-long series of events focused on hot air balloons.  I thought this might be something that Marcus would enjoy, and I decided to invite my dad along.  He is usually into something fun and different like this.



So early this morning Marcus and I left for our adventure in Hudson, WI (we actually had to leave the house before 6:30 am).  The actual event was scheduled for 7:30 pm, and as many as 40 balloons were scheduled to take off – sounds totally cool to me.

We got there just in time and were met by the sad news that the wind was blowing the wrong direction and they would not be launching any balloons.  The good news is that they were still going to blow up some of the balloons while they sat on the ground.  For Marcus this was perfect.  I am pretty certain that he didn't know what to expect anyway.

It didn't take long for two things to happen:
1.  They started filling up a the massive Family Fresh Markets  balloon.
2.  We found grandpa – Marcus was pretty excited to see him.

We walked around, and soon many of the other balloons started to get filled up.  I am guessing we saw about 10 balloons filled with hot air.  Marcus loved all of it.  But it was pretty cool watching them get filled up.  It was faster than I would have guessed and a lot more entertaining.

Marcus was not excited to walk away, but he was getting cold – it was about 23°F outside, so we needed to get back inside.  When we started walking away, Marcus ran back to be closer to the balloons again.  So we compromised, and I carried him.  That way, he could still see the balloons behind us while I carried him.

When he got the car he said, "Mo' Big Balloons, Mommy."  I think it was a win.

Here are a few of the balloons that we saw today.  If you want to see more information on the event, check out the website below

http://www.hudsonhotairaffair.com/balloons.htm

After leaving the balloons, we still did a few more activities with Grandpa Harvey in Hudson.  First, we went to the Freemason's Pancake Breakfast – it was quite yummy.  Once that was done, we headed down to the river and did a bit of geocaching.  We found a really cute path next to the river and headed down it.  It wasn't very far, and we found the geocache.  We signed the log and headed towards the second stop.  When we were walking toward the second cache, we saw an opening in the river with a ton of geese, swans, and ducks just hanging out in the open water.  Marcus was super-excited—he does love birds.  We tried for the second stop, but gave up because it was time to head out and return home.

This was a great day.  It is always fun to hang out with my dad – Marcus loves his grandpa and hanging out with him.  I think we may go again next year.  I just hope the balloons go up!