Tag: Sequim Balloon Festival

The first ever Sequim Balloon Festival in 2012 was a real treat. Our landscape is a beautiful to begin with, but adding in the color and whimsy of hot air balloons is a real bonus.

As summer winds down it’s been great fun having our skies brightened by hot air balloons from the Sequim Balloon Festival. Judging from the turnout by the sides of the roads as they launched early in the mornings, there’s been a lot of interest in this new event. I have loved this eye candy and am grateful to have this event in our collective backyard.

Here are random views from our skies this past weekend.

The Peninsula Daily News reported this week that the bee balloons would fly during the Sequim Balloon Festival this weekend. They sounded very cute – and they didn’t disappoint.

Up they came, then they hovered for a while down behind some trees. Then came the fleeting embrace.

Here’s a closer view. The three bees and three or four other balloons landed in a field next to where we’d stopped. Most were balloons we hadn’t see in flight earlier this week and the balloonist we asked mentioned they came down because the spot looked very convenient. The flights seemed short to us; the landing site was only about a mile from their launch site at Sequim Airport. And most of the balloons we saw landed without benefit of a chase crew.

Come back tomorrow if you’re not oversaturated with balloon photos. I’ll post photos of a few of the more conventional – but nonetheless striking – ones.

Hot air balloons can get up to an altitude of 2,500 feet above ground and hold over 100,000 cubic feet of heated air. (Insert your own political comparisons here.)

But we wanted to see a balloon more up close and personal. And, for instance, what happens when they come down?

When a chase vehicle conveniently drove by and waved on Thursday, we decided to chase the chaser.

The balloonist found a convenient-looking field off Woodcock Road, one with no crops, livestock, or power lines. Protocol dictates that permission be granted before landing. The chase vehicle and team went to the nearest house, knocked on the door, and asked. Once OK’d, the balloon came down gently and was grabbed by a team of three runners. As it hovered above ground, they walked the balloon and basket closer to the road where the chase vehicle waited. There were toasts with bubbly beverage, I heard a few “happy anniversaries,” and the ride for paying customers was over.

The balloon is inflated by hot air from propane burners. While it was still inflated, the man on the right walked lines from the top of the balloon to direct where it would fall as it deflated. Then he was joined by the second man and it looked like they stretched the balloon out as it fell.

I’m not sure exactly how it deflates (Is there an opening at the top? Is the air simply allowed to cool?) but it comes down steadily once the process starts. Then it’s time for a group hug: As the balloon flattens, the chasers and other volunteers squeeze it down for transport.

Here’s the basket – the cockpit and guest accommodations. Besides the balloon and the pilot’s skill, it’s all that stands between pilot, passengers, and the elements. (Yes, that’s a camera perched on the side of the basket. It seems like every camera in the western U.S. is visiting Sequim right now.)

The Sequim Balloon Festival runs this weekend through Monday. Balloon rides are $250 per person. That’s rich for my budget, so don’t expect any airborne shots here. The festival includes a classic car show, arts and crafts, music, and more. I’ll post more balloon photos from today’s launch tomorrow.

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It’s a balloon! Sequim’s first Balloon Festival is this weekend and participating balloonists have begun to arrive. Five checked out the conditions early yesterday morning.

The light wasn’t perfect but the winds were calm and the balloons drifted gracefully across the landscape.

It was a great treat. And it was almost as much fun to see how many other people were taking it in too. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many people out in Sequim that early, pulled over by the sides of the roads, looking up. . .and everyone had cameras.