Tucson Roadtrips / Destination - Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta

Last week I mentioned that my husband and I were going to take a road trip, and boy did we! Tucson's a great city for road trips because it not too far from a lot of great places and events. Once the temperatures cool down it's fun to just get in the car and drive. We had always wanted to check out the Balloon Festival in NM, so we thought there's no better time then the present. We headed out mid morning on Saturday, our destination being Albuquerque NM. Our path took us East on I-10, where took a few short cuts before coming to Hatch NM, home of the "World's Best Chile Pepper". Hatch is a quaint little farming community, and everywhere you look you'll see chile's hanging from the roofs of the local businesses. My husband stopped to find a special chile pepper spice he needed desperately, and then we continued on our journey. After a 5 1/2 hour drive we reached our hotel in Albuquerque at about 5pm. FYI there's a one hour time change so make sure to adjust your clocks! The trip was really scenic leaving Tucson and getting into Albuquerque but the four and half hours in the middle were pretty uneventful! Just a note; I'm planning on writing another blog or two about Albuquerque as well as Santa Fe in the future. I've had a lot of clients that were considering both of these cities as well as Tucson when they began their home search, so I plan on including more detailed information and a comparison in a future blog.

The Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta is a week long festival that draws about 700 balloons and over 100,000 visitors each October. It's a huge event for the city, so every hotel was booked. Thanks to my husband's Hilton points we were able to get a room at a weeks notice, but if you plan on going, make your reservations early.

After arriving at our hotel we learned that the evening's balloon glow had been cancelled due to high winds, but this gave us the chance to check out the area and get some dinner. We headed out to the historic Old Town, Albuquerque's first official neighborhood. Old Town follows the traditional Spanish pattern of a plaza and church surrounded by businesses and homes. A lot of these homes have been renovated into restaurants and galleries, so it's a really fascinating place I would advise everyone to check out.

The next morning we headed out to the fiesta's mass ascension (the launch of all the balloons) bright and early. I woke my husband up at 4:30 so we could avoid the back-up of traffic at the event entrance. Even though we arrived at the event location at about 5:45am, traffic was crazy. I will say the the Albuquerque police and several hundred volunteers were incredibly organized so that traffic moved pretty quickly.

When we arrived it was still dark outside, so we headed over to several balloons that were being inflated. These balloons were the testers that head out first to check out wind conditions. It was beautiful to watch the balloons light up as they began to inflate; it's similar to the balloon glow at night but on a much smaller scale. After these balloons took off we decided the check out the rest of park and find some breakfast. The balloon park is set up to keep people occupied and fed throughout the day. A endless list of events are scheduled during the week long fiesta, and food and beverage tents can be found everywhere. You'll find everything from breakfast burritos and cinnamon roles to bratwurst and funnel cakes, all of which are available all day long ( It's funny to see a 5 year old chewing on a turkey leg at 7 in the morning).

At around 7am several balloons began taking off, signalling the start of the mass ascension. With 700 balloons participating in the event, waves of balloons would take off every few minutes. It's really "standing room only" because the balloons are spaced about 30-40 feet apart, and when they begin to inflate the crowds are pushed back into other spectators. Every balloon was beautiful, although some theme balloons seemed to draw all the attention. Kids and adults alike were in awe watching the multi color canopy on the sky.

After the last of the balloons took off (about two hours later) we went to take a nap before heading North to Santa Fe. Although driving to Albuquerque was longer then our typical weekend road trip, I'd do it again in a heartbeat. It was an incredible sight seeing all the colorful balloons suspended in the sky; it's almost overwhelming. If you can sit in the car for six hours with your spouse and not go crazy I would highly recommend checking it out!