Autumn in Seattle

The last couple of weekends have been quiet, catching up on washing and blogging. In the meantime fall is falling all over the place. It hasn't been too damp or windy so there are beautiful leaves all over the place...

October Outing to Autumnal Albuquerque; part 4 - zoo

My final morning I didn't get up at 4am (hurrah!). Today Tish and I went to the zoo. Get ready for cute animal photos...

sleepy polar bear!

finally I got to see a real koala,
usually when I get to the zoo to see them
they've died of cancer!

And then it was time to fly home, I got the front economy row and didn't have anyone sat next to me - yay! and the view out of the window across the plateau was pretty great although it got dark soon.

the top right of the photo is the rio grande which runs through the city

I had a wonderful long weekend and look forward to another visit!

October Outing to Autumnal Albuquerque; part 3 - big beautiful balloons blowing along the breeze in the blue sky...

Sunday morning was another 4 am get up and bundle into the car with coffee, but this time there was little traffic - horray! I couldn't stop grinning I enjoyed it so much...

By 5:40 we have our tickets and we walked into a flood lit corridor of tents selling coffee, memorabilia, and lots of food. There are no fairground ride or games, just lost of people trying to find breakfast! 

At about 6 am we start seeing the first bursts of flame and make our way
over to the first row of balloons to be filled with air.

As the row of balloons rises the flames start filling them with hot air,
and everyone huddles around in the cold night as the balloons slowly rise.

by 6:15 the first balloon in the dawn patrol is up
and the others are soon to follow

floating of into the night except for the occasion blast of flame

by 6:20 the dawn is starting behind the mountain range

At 6:30 we start walking the field looking for
the next set of balloons to start up

By 6:45am we were still glad of the warmth from flames...

... and soon more balloons were lifting off

The sunrise was also beautiful.

any guesses what this balloon became?

This balloon is starting to be blown up. Also the balloon in the
background part blown up.

this balloon came all the way from Oxford

Balloons of all shapes and sizes started popping up everywhere.

The black and white balloon from earlier is in the background, see it's a cow!

What could this one be?

...with great powers come...

...spider pig!

Panda

Smokey Bear

another high school band

sleepy bees

awake bees

me inside an old balloon

there was also chainsaw carving

they were having competitions

and eventually there was a sky full of balloons

After the morning ascent we went home for another nap and in the evening popped out for a nice see food meal. We went home and watched "Stargate" so ended the third day in Albuquerque.