A Little Later

Like the crazy person I feel like most of the time, I willingly got up in the middle of the night for the second day in a row to go down to the Fiesta with my sister on Sunday morning to try again to watch the mass ascension.

We decided to go just a tad bit later and arrived at the park at nearly 5am (we brought our own chairs this time).  Then we sat in our warm car till closer to scheduled liftoff.  In the parking lot.

I'd made our own breakfast burritos before we left and wrapped them in foil, so we wouldn't have to pay a fortune for ones that didn't taste worth more than a buck.  We ate those in the car and I rested my eyelids realizing that I hadn't fully caught up on sleep from the morning before.  It was definitely more difficult to get out of bed early on the second day.

We ventured into the park around 6am.  It was much colder this particular morning than the day before.

The Dawn Patrol show schedule to start fifteen minutes earlier, was delayed due to a wind advisory.  But a little while later, pilots were allowed to inflate and set off.

I think the Dawn Patrol part of the morning was absolutely the most magical, stunning thing I've seen about the whole Fiesta in all our years attending so far.  Seeing them light up against the indigo sky was just a thrill.

As the sun began rising, they sent a balloon up with the American flag and we watched it rise above the crowd while listening to the National Anthem playing over the speakers.

The crowd continued to get fuller down on the field and more balloons started inflating.  Then rising up.  It was an amazing sight to see.  I'm happy to be able to share some pictures with you (that aren't just my Pepsi bottle on the table in the dark).  I'll let most of these speak for themselves.  Enjoy.

Inside the butterfly balloon.

And we still went back for the evening events with the whole family!  I'll post about that a little later.

Having a great time with Jessica who has to go home again in a couple days!! :(