We love traveling. We always capture tons of pictures from wherever we've been and we like sharing our traveling experiences with our friends. So, this is how this blog began - as short stories with pictures in an attempt to share where we've been and what we've seen. Even not stories , but just notes. Nothing serious and big. Mostly I'm writing these stories on a rush and sometimes even don't have time to re-read them. So, I apologize in advance for possible typos here and there. There can be some factual errors or inaccuracies and they even might be corrected one day. Don't hesitate to contact me if you find something that needs to be fixed and don't expect these notes to be a perfect novels ;) The stories in this blog are not in chronological order, but I will try to remember to put the date of the trip. So... welcome to this blog and, hopefully, you will find something interesting and have the same feeling we had when we were there. Let's go...
And... by the way... all pictures and texts in this blog are protected by International and USA Copyright laws, so if you'd like to repost or use something on your page - contact me first.
Using anything published here without permission is violation of the law and... it isn't really nice...
Saturday, September 19, 2026
Labor Day Lift Off
Sometimes you have to wake up really early if you want to see something interesting. Like 3 AM early :) And then you need to drive for over an hour to get there... And all you can see at this point is complete darkness... And, surprisingly, you will be surrounded by hundreds of people waiting for something to take off. What am I talking about? Colorado Springs Hot Air Balloon Festival - Labor Day Lift Off!
The festival runs for three days around Labor Day weekend and starts early... Every day at 5:30-6:00 AM, hundreds of people are waiting in the dark. And at some point, the show starts. It begins with a Drone Light Show. Watch this short recording if you want to get an impression of it...
Well, it obviously isn't as cool and sophisticated as some of the drone shows... but it was really impressive to see it live :)
And it actually woke us up and set the mood for the festival ;)
This hot air balloon festival is not big. Something like 70 balloons take off, and not all of them fly on the same day. The preparation starts long before dawn... The crews start by unwrapping and strengthening the balloons, which at this point look like huge, flat, colorful pillow cases...
It took a while to get everything ready for inflation...
And now it's time... the sun is ready to appear and rise... The morning clouds look simply stunning, lit by the first sun rays peeking over the horizon...
Before the crew starts working on the balloon, they check the burners. This is an impressive thing to watch... it's like watching a dragon exhaling flames... The hissing of the dragon actually makes you twitch, especially when you hear it right behind your back.
And a few minutes later, the first balloon is airborne and slowly moving above the crowd... Lit by the first sunlight, it looks simply amazing...
A minute or two later, it flew over our heads before moving farther away and out of view...
More and more teams were testing their burners, while more and more balloons were getting ready to take off...
Meanwhile, we walked around admiring everything - balloons in the air and on the ground, people cheering for the crews, and the hiss of the burners... the sounds of the festival!
I glanced at my friend's face and realized that it was time to turn around and capture the moment when two balloons were perfectly aligned on their way up into the sky...
So, we continued wandering around the field, looking for more and more balloons getting ready...
If you plan to take a flight one day, just look at this basket... Packed with fuel tanks, it barely has room for a person or two. I had no idea the space was so limited! Obviously... this is a small basket, and most of them are bigger... but how much more space do they actually give you?
More and more balloons got airborne, and it was a really cool thing to watch!
Obviously, this festival is not as big as the Albuquerque Balloon Festival (click here to check it out - Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta). But it isn't one of the small events either. They expected something like 200,000 people to attend the festival and... it sounds like a good number, what do you think?
The State of Colorado balloon ;)
The basket is full of passengers, gliding above our heads...
We moved around and spent some time by the lake... watching balloons crossing the sky and disappearing far away...
We made a circle and moved toward the far end of the park, where we spotted someone hiding behind the fence...
Well, there was a pair of llamas watching the crowd. Nice creatures, huh?
Once again, I spotted something interesting while looking at the reflection...
...and this time there were a couple of cartoon characters. Probably one evil and one good ;)
Walking around, we looked at the crowd and balloons, some still on the ground and some high up in the sky...
A sound caught our attention, and we looked up to find a military aircraft circling around and preparing for a skydiving demonstration held by Air Force Academy cadets...
But before the show began, we witnessed the rise of Zozobra ;)
A few minutes later, all the crew left the airplane and started a slow descent toward the field, where we had cleared some space for them to land.
Well... no words can describe the show, so just look at how they circled and landed in the same spot, every one of them...
Back to Zozobra ;) A 135-foot-tall special-shape hot air balloon, modeled after Will Shuster's famous "Old Man Gloom" marionette from Santa Fe. It debuted in 2024, ahead of Zozobra's historic 100th annual burning.
The giant inflatable balloon was built by Cameron Balloons in the UK and cost $300,000. It features the iconic white gown marked with "Santa Fe: The City Different" and distinctive green hair :)
By this time, we were tired and decided to leave. So we slowly moved around the field and headed back to the car, passing the lake and leaving all the hot air balloons, including Zozobra and "La Rista" (another hot air balloon, which resembles a string of red chili peppers), behind...
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