Fall Happenings
So other than the boring stuff - working at work, working on projects around the house, and working on baby prep - what have we been up to lately? Plenty of fun; fall is a great time of year around here (so is spring, summer, and Christmas... it's just the dead time of year between New Years and about mid-March that I could live without).
The season kicks off with the State Fair in September. The grounds are smack in the middle of Albuquerque and Shawn and I go every year to see the animals and art exhibits, check out the action at the Indian and Hispano villages, and mostly to load up on junk food. Where else can you get Indian fry bread, Tom Thumb donuts, a frito pie, roasted corn, and a deep-fried Snickers in one location (the latter is NOT recommended!)?
Early-October brings another favorite - the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. This year, we woke up before dawn to check out a "special shapes mass ascension". It's pretty wild to see giant cows, bees, and other funky shaped ballons hovering in the air over town. There's even a "Jesus: The Hot Air Balloon" entry (he's huge and rising out of a cloud)... he inflated, but unfortunately didn't take to the skies this year for reasons unknown (as the old lady next to us pointed out, "Jesus just couldn't get up today"!!). Here are some highlights...
The chile ristra - a New Mexican tradition :0) These things are everywhere this time of year, mostly hanging by doorways (for decoration and good luck), but since they're dried red chile peppers, you can also eat the pods if you don't lacquer them.
Most of the time you can stand on the field right next to the balloons as they're inflating, but they clear it for the key grab competition, where pilots have to come in the park from outside and drop down to try to retrieve sets of keys (the prizes are things like new Expeditions) from these poles. They're pretty low (maybe 25 feet?) and plenty of ballons bounce off the ground or each other while making their attempt. Here's the first wave of ballons coming in to try...
Last weekend we dragged a couple of friends along to a fall harvest festival at one of the local organic farms, and picked out our pumpkins from one of their patches. Unfortunately, our male dog, Simba, has apparently developed a taste for pumpkin in the last year so they're now complete with teeth marks. But we'll probably carve them up for Halloween anyway. We saw "The Phantom of the Opera" last night and are heading to a costume party tonight, so if we can stay out of the trick-or-treat candy stash between now and Tuesday night, we'll be in good shape...
Boo, Amelia
1 comments:
Thanks so much for the updates and photos! You did a great job. It makes me want to get back to Albuquerque and take in the Balloon Fiesta.
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