Preakness Celebration Balloon Festival

This past weekend was a pretty big weekend in Maryland. The 139th running of the Preakness Stakes took place on Saturday and while the hubs and I elected to skip this year's Infield fest we still managed to have a great Preakness weekend. 

For me that meant waking up at 5am on Saturday morning in order to down a granola bar and head over to watch the Preakness Celebration Balloon Festival at Turf Valley Resort. The festival was supposed to have a mass balloon launch at 6:30am and a special presentation for armed service personnel at 6:15am. However, the winds conditions were not ideal and given everyone's concerns with hot air balloons the executive decision was made to inflate the balloons Saturday morning, but not let them get off the ground. 

I was a bit bummed to miss seeing the balloons soaring in the air, besides the tethered balloon that was rising low in the sky for short flights, but in the interest of safety I completely understand and I hope to catch the balloons in all their soaring action next year. 

This was the most time I've ever spent around hot air balloons and I must say I was incredibly impressed with their beauty and pageantry. And even more in awe of the work it took just to unload these gentle giants and get them inflated. 

Have you ever taken a hot air balloon ride? My fear of flying probably wouldn't go over well in one of those balloons so for now I'm going to keep my feet on the ground and just admire them from that position.