Yesterday we all went to the Plano Balloon Festival. It was our third year going there, and we all thoroughly enjoyed it. We originally started going because of Morgan’s love of hot air balloons, but this year I was just as excited as he was to go. The weather sucked this year, as it was 98°, humid, and the sun beating down on us was especially fierce. The light breeze only made it a little more bearable, but, I guess, it was better than no wind at all. I ended up using the compact rain umbrella I have in my purse to keep most of the sun off Morgan, but Pookey & I had to suffer. Next year I plan on having something much bigger to shelter all of us from the sun. Definitely!

I had wanted to get one of those Radio Flyer wagons with the built in seats especially for events like the festival, but instead had to be content with my 4 wheeled wire basket cart for all the things (blanket, folding chair, camera bag & big canvas tote bag with all our miscellaneous stuff in it.) we needed to bring. It actually did quite a good job carrying everything, and I’d have to say that other than also being able to carry Morgan, the wagon couldn’t have done better. At least I didn’t have to carry everything (minus the folding chair & camera bag) myself like I did last year!!!

There was only one major thing that marred my enjoyment of the festival:

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I intentionally made sure that we set up our blanket extra early this year, so we’d be sure to get a "front row" seat on the northern edge of the balloon launch area. Unfortunately I left a foot and a half space between our blanket and the roped off balloon launch area, and didn’t realize that by not putting our blanket right up against the boundery I was asking for trouble… *sigh*

A woman & her three children (10 – 6 yo?) decided, without even asking us, that the space between our blanket and the balloon launch area was room enough for them to sit. *sigh* Needless to say, there was NOT enough room there, and her kids kept intruding into our space. Each time this happened the woman would tell the offending child to apologize… To me all of those apologies were empty ones, since the apology should have been followed by them leaving to find another place to be. Plus, the apologies should have come from the woman herself for invading our space, after all, she was the one responsible for her kids being there in the first place. Instead she kept trying to placate me socially with their apologies. Can you say clueless & rude? Thankfully they left right after the 6 pm balloon launch when she FINALLY got the hint that she was not welcome. I’m sure that she’s told everyone about "that bitch" at the balloon festival who would not make room for her and her children. She just lucky that I didn’t start ranting at her over her incredible rudeness. Then she would really have had something to tell her family & friends!!!

After they left I moved our blanket closer to the edge balloon launch area. Still, people did not repect our personal space, and continued to try to crowd us. It just never ceases to amaze me that there are people who expect to get a good seat to view the balloons when they do not take the time to save one for themselves. They just expect that they can trespass on other people’s space, and they’ll just give way. I refuse to do this. I took the time to insure that we got a good place to sit, and so can they. I don’t owe any one of them anything.
</rant>

We ended up staying this year until after the 9 pm fireworks. This was Morgan’s first time seeing fireworks up close and personal, and I was pleasantly surprised by how much he enjoyed them. He’s always liked viewing them from afar, but we were concerned that the noise would be too much for Morgan to handle because of his autism. I’m glad that our fears proved groundless, since this means we can start going to the fourth of July fireworks next year, rather than watching what we can of them from our back balcony. Yaaaaay!!!