Santa Fe and Balloon Fiesta 2011

After a long flight and layovers, we spent our first day travelling and nearly had a huge diaster before our trip even began.  We were happily strolling along after retrieving our bags (one wasn't checked but had to be put under the plane right as your boarding) and it turns out that someone else took our bag and we had theirs.  We literally would have never known until we got to our hotel!  But the other lady had somehow looked in the bag and realized "oh shit" this isn't ours.  They were freaking out because their laptops were in the bag we had and mostly it would have just sucked for me because every single shirt I had packed was in that bag!  Glad to have avoided that and at least started with some good luck!!  The next morning we got up and went out to explore Santa Fe with a whole day of walking until we dropped!  After this one day, we pretty much just went into downtown Santa Fe to eat meals and oh my did we eat!!  Luckily, I ended the trip with only a 2 pound weight gain - yeah for me!  We ate so much that even our fortune at a Vietmanese place read, "Ulcers are what you got for forgetting your stomach"!  How funny is that?!  We had the most authentic mexican food at a place called Maria's where sopapillas became my new love!  AND we had some REAL margaritas where the owner literally "wrote the book" on them.  After one and half drinks Eric needed me to drive, that's how good they were!  Below is a picture of a church in Santa Fe.

Santa Fe is known as being widely respected in the art world.  Mostly because it boasts the most art galleries.  There are 100 (at least) on Canyon Road...this road goes on and on forever!  We did it in 3.5 hours and went in most of the galleries!  It was exhausting but we did it....and happened to find something we liked to add to our collection.  Below is a picture of one of the galleries from Canyon Rd.  The sign says, "Jesus said buy folk art".

 Ah, balloon fiesta!  This was magnificent.  We awoke at 4:15am this morning with a departure time of 4:38.  The guy at the hotel told us we needn't leave before 5 and we're glad we didn't listen.  We didn't roll into the park until 6:50 with mass ascention starting at 7!  Barely made it!  Can you believe it only costs $6 per person to enter!!!  (With a $10 parking fee).  Kids under 12 were free.  I gladly would have paid more. 

 Opening ceremonies with the flag and music and planes flying over...all that jazz.

 Sun is not quite up yet, just barely peeking over the mountain for this great silhouette.

 At first there were just a few balloons in the air at a time and I thought, this is it?

 This picture is to show how we were all just milling about with balloons in every stage of going up.  Some flat on the ground, some filling up, some just getting off the ground.  You could just walk around and be anywhere!  Stuff was happening all around you...eventually so fast you didn't know where to look!

 Ah, now there are literally 100s of balloons in the sky, that's more like it!

 The special shapes were cool, especially Darth Vader!

 Spiderpig, Angel, Butterfly...balloonist came from all over the world!

Me with the bees and haunted house

Very cool thing to see.  It's one thing to ride in a hot air balloon, which we've done in New Zealand, but this was something else altogether.  In two hours 700+ balloons took flight and the result was magical.  I could have sat there all day.