We enjoyed watching the balloons from the hotel room and from the interstate yesterday, so we decided to go back to the fairgrounds in the morning to check it out again.

It is early and the sun is just coming up, but it isn't as early as the first time!

The pilots test out their burners.

The balloons are all over each other. It is amazing.

They let us get all up and around them.
In the background is the "Bad Check," the balloon we went up in two days before.

Having a great time!

There's the Bad Check, lifting off a bit ahead of the pack, as it likes to.

A few hundred yards away is another set of balloons.

Overhead are more (and perfect skies).

Fifteen minutes later, the sky is getting cloudy.

The massive Creamland cow is a crowd favorite.
It takes over an hour to fill and doesn't typically fly, but it does in today's perfect condition.

Onece again, the sky fills up with hundreds of balloons.
The Lighthouse is new today.

The hummingbird is one of the three bird-themed ballons that are new and featured this year.

Wow.

We head to a truckstop diner for breakfast a couple of miles from the fairgrounds.
Balloons are all over this city and land pretty much anywhere, including the land behind the diner.

Breakfast is.... interesting. I told them no gravy on the biscuits, so they put it on my fried steak.
(I think I ate about a pound of steak and still left over half of it.)

As we ate, a couple of balloons drifted by.
We clean up, then head to the airport and home.
Great birthday trip!!