HOT AIR BALLOON FESTIVAL @ CLARK

 Today, we spent the day at Clark, Pampanga to witness our first-ever Hot Air Balloon Festival…it had been celebrated annually for 18 years now, ever since the US military bases vacated Clark to promote tourism in the area. We had planned to do this since last month pa, ever since I saw the announcement about the event. But it was all just plans…we never really made concrete itineraries and made invitations to others to join us. So on the week before the event, I was still non-committal to my sister who wanted to tag along with us for the event…good thing we were together na din since last night so when the hubby decided to push through with it… she was able to come with us.      
The day before, Alan already bought some hotdogs and longganisa for our breakfast/picnic tomorrow while waiting for the balloons to be launched then on D-Day, we got up early to cook rice, and the hotdogs, we also packed some plates, glasses, cold water in a jug and of course, a picnic mat. Then, after I woke up everyone (including Anna, Alan, Ditse and the kids) off we went to travel for about an hour to Clark, Pampanga. We do not have the money to pay for the entrance tickets and so we opted to just find our spot outside the launching grounds…anyway, we can see the balloons naman from just about anywhere. At first, we went near the entrance, we followed where the people were going…but after awhile, we realized the entrance was still quite far from the launching area and in fact, our parking spot was even nearer and so we changed venues and hurried to where our car was parked because they were starting to inflate the balloons na.      
The balloons this year included a lot of regular shaped balloons and had many forms and sizes - a space shuttle, a sun, an elephant head, Humpty Dumpty, and whole lot more. The balloons, a blog says, were from different countries around the world and were brought here to the Philippines. The thing about hot air balloons is that you can’t control them. They go where the wind takes them. So even if the balloons did not fly near where we were situated, at least we were near the launch area so we get to see them before the winds took them elsewhere …we were so lucky indeed! The kids had so much fun taking pictures and watching in awe as the colorful hot air balloons took off.  
But the day is not just about hot air balloons – we were also able to witness para-gliders doing exhibitions and different formations in the sky. But what really made our day was the Breitling Jet Team that made a spectacular aerobatic display with their supersonic jets…it was just so amazing! We almost did not get to see it because we thought the show was over and we decided to move out of the parking lot earlier than the others so as not to get stuck there…but good thing that we were caught in traffic or maybe the cars just decided to stop on the highway and gaze at the marvelous maneuvers unfolding before our eyes. And so we all went home quite satisfied and happy with everything that we had witnessed…will we come and visit again next year? Maybe…if it were better planned and maybe if we get the chance to get real up-close with the balloons or even better – get to ride in one---that would be the best experience yet!