Plano Balloon Festival

Last night, Laura and I decided to go to the Plano Balloon Festival. We wanted to reminisce old days at Baylor, where we used to attend the annual Balloon Glow. We sat in traffic and watched the balloons launch from the highway...haha. It seemed like all of Plano was heading in the same direction. Since we were late, we stopped at the first parking lot we could find. We ended up at the Collin Creek Community Church and we are so glad we stopped! They had volunteers from the congregation that were driving 15-passenger vans, mini-vans, and suburbans as transportation to the festival. So we hopped on a van with a whole bunch of little kids and had the greatest ride! Listening to their excitement as they each "claimed" their own balloon, argued about being old enough to ride the balloons, etc. really made my heart happy.

When we got to the festival, we watched as the remaining balloons were filled. It was such beautiful weather, and it was fun to see all the variety of balloons. When it got dark, Laura and I were really excited to watch the Balloon Glow! Unfortunately, we were severely disappointed by the Plano Balloon Glow. Haha. I hate to say that, but last night's show left nothing to be desired. It made us really miss the Baylor Balloon Glow! Baylor knows how to do it right. They have the balloons land in Floyd Casey Stadium. Then, when it gets dark, the balloons glow in sync with music! It's choreographed and the balloons glow to the beat of the music. And it's pretty much the coolest thing ever! So here's to Baylor for putting on an awesome show! Plano needs to take some pointers...oh well. The lighted balloons were still pretty though:

After the festival, we decided to walk back to our car instead of ride the vans back. It was a nice night and we thought the exercise would be good. Aside from there being no sidewalk, and almost getting run over by cars when the grass path ran out, it was a nice 1.5 mile hike. When we got back to the car, we were able to watch the festival's fireworks to round out the evening. All in all, it was a fun night and we are glad we went. It was great to spend time together and a fun way to spend the last days of summer.