"May the winds welcome you with softness. May the sun bless you with its warm hands. And sets you gently back into the loving arms of Mother Earth.
- Balloonist’s Prayer
We found ourselves heading south from Colorado and JoAnn noticed our friends heading to Albuquerque for the International Balloon Festival and we decided that would be a fun detour from a not yet planned route south.
After reaching our hometown of Baton Rouge, Louisiana and spending Thanksgiving with family we took our only grandchild on an adventure of a lifetime! Since we will be out of pocket after we leave next year heading west we wanted to do something special for him and a Disney cruise sounded like a great idea!
We spent the holidays in Baton Rouge, Louisiana catching up with family and friends and doing some work on the property and camper.
Hot Air Balloon Fiesta!
The festival was started in 1972 in a shopping market parking lot and has grown into the largest balloon festival in the world, with around 500 balloons participating! The Albuquerque box is one reason the festival has been so successful which is a unique air currents that at low altitudes the wind is blowing north but higher it is blowing south allowing balloonist to takeoff and land in the same field when conditions are perfect.
We started our Fiesta experience by meeting our mentor and dear friends Mike and Margaret. It was Mike’s birthday and we enjoyed our lunch with his son and daughter-in-law got valuable insight about the festival.
Our first experience was an afternoon special shapes rodeo where non-traditional balloons are put up but do not fly. We got to see shapes from armadillos to Yota from Star Wars.
We got up the next morning and left the trailer at 4:30AM to get to the festival ground before 6 so we could see the dawn patrol which is the small group that is sent out to ‘test the conditions’. We got to see the mass ascension that followed after about an hour. Seeing hundreds of balloons ascend all at once was quite a sight to see.
Petroglyphs National Monument
While in Albuquerque, we visited the petroglyph and ancient volcanic activity that served as the base for them. This location had the most petroglyphs of any location we have yet to visit, some very interesting and could be considered art. Most of the carvings are attributed to the ancestral pueblos with about 10 percent being post 1600 and having Spanish authors or influences.
What a great time! Our grandson is six and what we considered the perfect age to experience Disney so we decided a cruise was a novel way to experience the magic of the mouse. We were not disappointed! Disney turned out to live up to all the hype we had heard. From the dinner wait staff following you from restaurant to restaurant so they knew you likes and could deliver a special experience to the live Broadway level shows that brought Disney classics to life.
Dawson had the time of his life! Luckily he was tall enough to ride the water slide so being able to swim while at sea was his favorite. He really liked getting Mickie ice cream bars after every dinner. Dawson got special attention from Jorge who taught him some magic and Mr. Weekly, our cabin steward who gave him a private towel folding lesson.
Our day in Cozumel was effected by the weather and we decide to take a taxi to the east side of the island which had a protected cove and to a beach restaurant. We discovered Chen Rio on one of our dive trips to Cozumel and this place is popular with locals because it is away from the tourist and tourist prices. Dawson got to swim in the reef protected, picture perfect waters.
© 2026 Time2Geaux Unplugged
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
/1x.jpeg?auto=webp)
/1x.jpeg?auto=webp)
/1x.jpeg?auto=webp)
/1x.jpeg?auto=webp)
/1x.jpeg?auto=webp)
/1x.jpeg?auto=webp)