Hot Air Balloon Festival

This afternoon I found out that today is the last day of the International Hot Air Balloon Festival. It sounded interesting so I decided to take the kids. After Micah got up from his nap we had a bite to eat and headed over to Gomez Palacio*. A woman who lives there gave me directions and I had a map so I figured it shouldn't be a problem. Well. I was quite mistaken and got quite lost. But we made it there eventually and got onto the grounds. There were a few carnival rides and not much else for little ones. But it was all the kids needed to have a good time. They both take after me in that respect- they LOVE rides. Perhaps too much because I had to peel Micah off each one when it ended.

We rode the roller coaster. A poor man's version of the one we've ridden a few times at the Bosque. The attendant actually had to push start it. And manually stop it. I said a fervent prayer as I noticed the blocks of wood shimming up the skinny posts which support the rails. But honestly, the ride crutched along at such a pace that it was not nearly as dangerous as I'd originally feared.

We checked out the glass house. I warned the kids repeatedly to keep their hands in front of them but BAM! Micah whammo'd into the glass wall. He cried a bit then insisted on walking again. With his hands at his sides. And before I could stop him WHAMMO! again, into the same wall. But I gotta give the kid credit, he was the one who led us out of the maze, with a smile and a giggle.

Here is a photo of the Glass House attraction. You can see I've just peeled Micah out of the roller coaster.

We rode the carousel which they always seem to enjoy. Our final stop was the bus that goes round and round/up and down. Some of you may know the ride "The Rainbow": it's like that. Eva thought it was a little slow- and it was. Really didn't even tickle the tummy. But Micah really liked going up so high. Really really liked it. When the ride ended he didn't want to get off. Howled. Closed the bar on Eva's neck. She howled. As I was extracting the two howling kids from the ride that I decided we were done.

We headed out toward the car. And got sidetracked by a man selling stuff. The kids each got noisy caterpillar toys and seem to actually still like them.

Then we were sidetracked by the hot air balloons! (Oh yeah! We were at the Hot Air Balloon Festival!) So we enjoyed watching them get inflated for a while. Then our fatigue got the best of us and we headed home.

It was a fun diversion and an adventure. Especially considering that I got even more lost on the way home. Eva was very encouraging. "Mommy, I know you'll find the way. You got us there, so I know you can get us home."

*The Laguna area, in which we live, is comprised of three connected cities: Torreon, in the state of Coahuila, and Gomez Palacio and Lerdo, both in the state of Durango. The total metropolitan population is about one million.