I finally attend the Adirondack Balloon Festival this year, and it was poppin'! This review is a…read morehybrid, highlighting the venue and the event.
This is one of those events where every year I say I'm gonna go, and then every year I'm like, "Oh shoot, that was *today*?" So then I put it on the next year's bucket list until it becomes a vicious cycle... But nope, that all changed this year. I actually made it (setting the alarm was a feat itself).
It was a magical late-September morning, and the air was thick with a humid, dense fog. I couldn't believe I was on the road at 4:30 am, heading North to Queensbury to scoop up my partner in crime at 5:30 am before jetting to the airport to catch "Walter's Mass Ascension," a simultaneous flight of up to 100 of balloons. Yeah, we weren't missing that.
Getting to the the airport from neighboring Queensbury was actually a breeze; in a moment of weakness, we made the executive decision to pay for parking ($10!) directly across the street from the airport road, where dozens of other sleepy-eyed balloon chasers made their way to the landing field on foot.
If I had to do it again, I'd park at the vet's office next door, also offering parking for $10, because the guy who was "directing" traffic in my lot (i.e. pointing at random patches of grass with his flashlight) wasn't the friendliest, but maybe he's just not a morning person.
Had we opted for the free parking, leaving would have been a nightmare, idling in a long single-file line of cars exiting so in hindsight, paying to park wasn't a bad call.
On our way through the gates, I particularly enjoyed the retro airplane statue (?) with its permanent holding in limbo, dangling in front of the admin building, which looked like something out of a Wes Anderson film, so points for that.
Once inside the airport gates, it was really just time to wander until the launch started. It's so bizarre to think about how despite the fact a hot air balloon's a rather huge contraption, before it's all blown up, it's really just the basket/gongola (for passengers), with a neatly folded parachute, ready to be unfurled, blown up, and floating away.
Launch was scheduled for 6:30 - 7:30 am, but the first balloons started going up around 7 am, so while the launch field was littered with trucks, trailers, and gondolas, without much action, we booked it to the large airplane hanger to get in on the all-you-can-eat pancake breakfast, a fundraiser benefiting the Open Door Mission, a Glens Falls-based rescue mission. We stuffed our faces with pancakes, french toast, sausage, coffee, and OJ, and had a full belly before venturing out to catch the action.
The first balloons started glowing up and taking flight right around 7 am, so that's when the morning really started to pick up. All of a sudden, the field was full of activity, with brightly colored balloons and fabrics filling up the horizon.
We had a great morning walking through this magic, and sunrise only made the foggy morning glow with enchantment.