Balloons make me happy.......usually

The season of festivals is upon us. At least in the Columbus, Ohio area it is.  Our weekends stay booked up with all sorts of cultural festivals and harvest activities. So far we've done the Irish festival, Latino festival and a balloon festival. I plan writing little blogs about all of them. I just can't promise them in the order that they were attended.

I was so excited about going to the balloon festival in Marysville. I've never been to one and I've always loved  hot air balloons. There are several in the area, but we choose this one because it was the shows 35th anniversary and they were advertising an all out extravaganza. So we head out to rural Ohio to eat some fair food, watch balloons and possibly ride in one.

The festival was held at a small rural "crop duster" airport. Pulling into the city we should've  gotten an idea what we had in store for us. There were no signs directing us which way to go, thank goodness nav. Also there was no traffic control and every idiot within a 100 mile radius was going to the same festival. It took us almost an hour to go 1/2 a mile. That never starts the event off well, and my hubby had flown in earlier that day after being in Memphis all week working third shift. That's kind of like shaking a can of soda right before you open it. No matter what you do it's still going to explode when it is opened. I'm just glad that Sage slept through that part. Well we finally were parked, and  watched them blow up some of the balloons. I wish I could've been closer, but the hubby was already peeved, and my photo taking can open that can of agitated pop real quick.

The set up was cool, but I think they underestimated the number of people who would come out. The place was quickly packed to the hilt. So much so that the 5 food vendor (yes I said 5 food vendors) and one ticket line for the kids inflatables couldn't keep up. Unfortunately we had planned on a healthy ;-) meal of fair food, that unfortunately didn't happen. So we went over to the kids play area with the kid bouncy things, but they were $3 for 5min. So you had to stand in a line for 45 minutes to get a ticket and another 45 minutes to play. Not really sounding like a fun time for all. We had been at the show for awhile and everyone was getting cranky from being hungry and bored. So we decided to wait for the hot air balloon ride, they were suppose to start at 6:30pm and it was 8:30 so we though it would be in full swing. But alas they hadn't started running the rides, and when we went to get tickets we were quickly told Sage was too young. Arrrgh.....

So we walked around to see if there was anything else to do besides watching the bad Journey/Bon Jovi cover band (creatively named Bon Journey). We did find a couple of crop duster to look at, but that was it.  The mood of the boys was going south quickly. Sage was bored and all over the place, and Danny was cranky due to a lack of sleep, food, and the abundance of idiots and my camera. Danny decided to wait for some food and Sage and I set up camp for the balloon glow.

We watched the glow, and left. Most of my photos were snapshots that I took while waiting in line. Or when my hubby had left to do or get something.. I think I've mentioned my hubby's animosity toward my camera before, and with the disappointed of the Balloon show he was about ready to thrown in away. Thank goodness for photo editing. Hopefully one day soon I can start bringing in some money with this so, he will relax a bit more with  my photography.

There is so much potential at this festival, but the planning was horrible. Someone spent so much time on the 25 page magazine, that they didn't plan or organize anything else. They did plan some, but it was a bit half-assed (excuse the language to those of you who offend at such wording). I don't know if they had a bigger crowd than they expected or what, but it is more important have some entertainment and food that a magazine. They spent more time getting ads for the magazine than they did getting food vendors. I'm sorry 5 vendors at a festival is a recipe for destruction. Next year we'll go to Grove City instead.

The next entry will be in a better mood. Going through a rough patch... so is life.....I never promised a rose garden, I only promised that I would photograph it.

 I would like to thank The Punkrock mom for the I love your blog award. I would post the button, but I can't get it to show. I'm in Wisconsin on an explore right now so hopefully I will get some great shots for her challenge, I am going to put this into Artistically Amy's Color splash Sunday. I know it's not Monday, but this blog has been done since Sunday and it's burning a hole in my drafts box.