So Saturday we decided to venture out to the Lincoln, Il Art and Balloon Festival. Now normally I try to get all prepared and pack some sandwiches and drinks so we can keep the cost down but……. I was not in the mood! So we ventured off on our family outing by the seat of our pants. We just grabbed up the kids and took off for the evening. Now I have never been to a hot air balloon festival and I really don’t think my family had a clue as to what we were in for and neither did I. We were pulling into town and decided to head straight to the balloons because it was getting close to 5:30 and we sure didn’t want to miss the launching of the balloons. Well of course 1 wrong turn and we end up in a line that is not moving….always happens! Well we were in for a bit of a surprised when we entered the parking lot and we had saw signs that said $1 parking but they wanted $14 for us to get in. Apparently that included the entrance fee to the balloon festival. See why you need to research! LOL So we headed out of the car in a blind attempt to figure out what we were supposed to do now! There were tons of balloons being pulled out of their cases on the ground and people everywhere. So we threw down a blanket and prepared to watch!! I have to say that the next few hours of my life were pretty interesting. The balloons are huge and they don’t just pop up and take off. The folks running those things really put some work into getting those things up! I have to say it was pretty entertaining, and breathtaking to see something so large go up right before your eyes. Charlee screamed balloon over and over and over and of course between my daughter Alicia and myself we caught some pretty good photos. We decided to go ahead and eat some supper and stay for the light up the balloon portion of the show that started at dusk. That part was not exactly as I thought because they never really went up but just sat on the ground blinking. So we improvised and played the blinking game which was pretty simple. LOL When they counted 5…4…….3…….2……..1 blink!!! We through our hands up in the air and started opening and closing them to help them blink. Needless to say Charlee Ann found that pretty cool! So here is the scoop on what I thought about the Art and Balloon Festival in Lincoln, IL
- The balloons were absolutely gorgeous!
- The traffic getting into the festival was NOT good. The people in charge of switching out the lines going into the park were paying no attention whatsoever and I saw people waiting for over 1/2 and never allowed to move. While the other line just kept going in.
- Bathrooms they were porta potties so they were just gross. LOL but what do you expect. It would have been nice to have some sanitizer when you came out but all were empty of course!
- Food– Don’t even go there!! The food tasted good and all but we waited over an hour for dinner and over an 1 1/2 for a funnel cake and lemon aid. It was a serious fail on the organization of the food and very very frustrating. Note to self……take some sandwiches next time. 🙂
All in all we had a great time with the family and we plan to go back next year being a little more prepared and bringing our own food. I hope to see you there.
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