I found myself to be a little disappointed as we first arrived at the Plant City Balloon Fest last night. It was smaller than I expected, less vendors and food trucks, but the nice sized crowd seemed happy. A live band was playing and people were looking for just the right spot, and setting up their chairs to get ready for a show. There was only one balloon fully inflated at that point, and I should have realized that there would be more to come. There were at least 8 or 9 balloons in all, and watching them being inflated was pretty entertaining. Entertaining and more than a little scary, seeing the flames so close to the fabric of the balloons themselves.
Flames, and fabric, and passengers, all pretty much huddled together.For $25 you could have a tethered ride above the crowd.I spotted Tweety being inflated and got a kick out of that one. But Sylvester was a surprise because he was facing the wrong way for a bit, and then he turned around. Of course if you have one you surely will have the other also. What surprised me was a couple of kids in front of us who paid no attention to them, they probably never saw the Tweety and Sylvester cartoons. But at least two senior citizens got a kick out of them.I really wanted to use this shot as my feature photo, but that would have given it all away right from go.There was a laser show at 8 PM, and they scheduled another one for 10 PM but we left after the first one. The lights were amazing, I will admit, but the photos aren’t great, only a hint of what it was like.There was about a half an hour, maybe more, of amazing color.
The best thing about this event was that it was only a half hour from home. An easy drive, which isn’t always the case. When I see this event again I’ll happily go.
A Snowbird's Life Through the Lens 