This past weekend was something special. Some of the family went out on the road to take a trip together. My daughter, son-in-law and their two girls joined my wife and I on a trip to visit family in Corrales, NM. Road trips are special in many ways. They get all of you in a very closed in space with nothing but time on your hands. Since this was the first family road trip in a very long time, it brought back memories. We talked about all of the past road trips memories. We laughed (mostly at my expense) about the happenings on those trips. It was pretty cool.
We decided that we would head over during the night. We had to wait for everyone to get off of work… Since we were traveling with two very small children, they could sleep most of the trip. Driving for around 7 hours in the dark is definitely interesting. The most exciting part of that trip was when an elk decided to cross the road. Definitely woke up everyone in the car. We arrived in plenty of time (around 4:30am) to get to the Albuquerque International Balloon Festival! Parked and met up with family inside the event.
The views of watching those hot air balloons getting ready to launch is pretty cool. For most of us, it was our second time. We did have a few first timers… There were over 500 hot air balloons that morning that launched in the mass ascension. The pictures in this post come from our family cameras. Not professionally done, but we like them. Watching my grand daughter’s face when we were in the middle of the field with all of the balloons getting to ascend was pretty special. She was pointing out all of the balloons and commenting on the ones that she liked. Made the trip well worth it.
Or fun times were just beginning. We spent the rest of our trip catching up with the my brother-in-law and his family. Of course, we had to watch NFL football. We were staying with one of the biggest Pittsburgh Steelers families and watched the game in the man cave. We all got to watch the interaction with the cousins… It is funny to watch how they get along for only really being with each other a few times a year. The running around, laughter, sharing and just talking to each other was pretty cool. When in New Mexico, you have to eat green chile… I definitely did! Love the Hatch green chiles.
Our last day came up pretty quickly, not before we got a knock on the door from a hot air balloon pilot asking to launch his balloon in the yard next door. Was very cool to have your own private viewing. The pilot was trying to drop his key on the target to win a car… Shortly after that we set out for the drive back. The drive back seemed longer than the drive out.. Maybe it was the rain that we drove in and out of all the way home. Overall, the trip was awesome. Getting to spend time with family is very important to me. Spending time with the grand kids is something very special and I would not trade those times for nothing…
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