It's A Bird...It's A Plane...

Saturday, our hometown hosted the annual "Hot Air Affair." At 7am I woke up and pulled on some clothes, grabbed my camera and drove to a local elementary school, where a bunch of hot air balloons were scheduled to take off, if it wasn't too windy. Well, the neighbors' flag was waving a little, and I know that it's pretty pertinent that the air be still for ballooning, so I wasn't very surprised when the lift off was cancelled. I did get a hot cup of coffee out of the deal before I turned around to head home.

Later that day, Mike went to Menards to pick up some materials for our never-ending basement project. He called me from his cell phone to let me know that there were about 15 balloons over the river! I alerted my daughter and we both grabbed our cameras and off we went - balloon hunting! It was a thrill, as it always is to see these in the air. My camera's new, so I really don't know what I'm doing yet. I got a ton of pictures, but here are a few of my favorites:

The sign in the snow actually says "No Boat Parking." The snow is pretty deep right there by the river - it's hard as ice. That's Bridgette taking a picture of the balloons.

This is my favorite picture. I love the composition - with the icicles and the street lamp and the houses on the hill.

The Nemo balloon is cute, isn't it?

The sun sure was brilliant!

It looks warm, but it wasn't. My fingers felt frozen at one point, even though I wore mittens in between shots. Some of the balloons landed on the ice in the river. I have a few shots of them, too.

I hope you had a fun weekend! I am ready for Springtime! I hear we have a blizzard headed our way. Oh, well - it's February - that's what we get here in Minnesconsin. :)