Woke up this morning to the usual sunny day, although it was a bit chilly.
This is my last day here in Albuquerque .
We decided it would be fun to go to the Balloon
Museum
Albuquerque being the hot air ballooning capital of the world, Has to do with the mountains ringing the city
and the air currents. The Rockies are to
the west and the Sandia
Mountains
We started out with a photo op setting.
Here's my granddaughter flying solo.
And my son and I joining her
The museum has lots of great information about ballooning
and some wonderful displays. But the one
most interesting to me was the Double Eagle II.
On August 11, 1978 the Double Eagle II ascended from Presque Isle, Maine
and 137+ hours later laded outside of Paris, France (not Paris, Maine), close
to where Charles Lindburgh landed, the first successful Atlantic crossing in a
hot air balloon.
If you look carefully, on the side you might be able to read
Albuquerque and Maine .
There's also a Maine
state flag hanging nearby.
I tried to get the whole of the gondola and balloon in, but the extended balloon was too high.
We ended our excursion at the Owl Café, famous for their green chili burgers and awesome milk shakes.
Flying home tomorrow and looking forward to 20 inches of snow
on my back deck. Not!
Of course there's a great park in Presque Isle where they have a memorial where the balloon took off. It's really pretty cool something so momentus happended in the small town.
ReplyDeleteLoved your travel log!
Thanks for the lovely tour of the Balloon Museum. Very cool, the Maine connection.Love the little cutie. Yum, and the bigger cutie. (Hint, not you.)
ReplyDeleteLuke noticed the Maine flag first. Then we saw the lettering on the side of the gondola. They have the whole newscast playing that a very young Brokaw did on the evening news the day they landed.
ReplyDeleteHe is good looking isn't he. Wouldn't you enjoy taking a Spanish college course from him????
ReplyDelete