The Great Forest Park Balloon Race and Glow is an event that happens in late September that, in my opinion, marks the end of summer here in St. Louis. Attending the balloon glow is something I’ve been wanting to do since moving here eight years ago. It’s not very often you have a chance to get up close to one. Walking through the area made me feel super small whenever I’d look up at the balloons. One balloon actually almost fell over on me as I was walking by. Don’t worry though, all that half marathon training came in handy and I was able to get out of harm’s way. (It didn’t end up falling over.)
My friend Matt had the question of the night…how does someone even get into hot air ballooning?! We have no idea.
Getting pictures was a bit harder than I thought because the balloons’ fires weren’t constant. Every minute or so there’d be a countdown followed by a horn blow and all of the balloons would light up for a few seconds. It was actually kind of hard to walk through the area when the balloons weren’t lit up because it was dark. I have going on a hot air balloon ride on my 30 Before 30 list, but after seeing how small some of those baskets were I’m not so sure about going on. It would have to be a pretty big and TALL basket. I don’t feel like falling out of one!
—m.