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festival concession, Tropic Hut |
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Tropic Hut At The Albuquerque International Balloon
Fiesta
October 6-15, 2006, Albuquerque, NM--AIBF Home Page
This was our biggest event to date, and it exceeded every expectation!
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VIDEOS
Click one of the images below to open the video. To
download the file, right click the image and select "Save Link Target
As...," then use the dialogue box to select the folder on your local
disc where you want to save the file. After downloading you can
open the videos any time you like and in full screen for the complete
dazzling effect. These are big files, so please be patient with
the download time. All videos are in QuickTime Movie format.
Special Shapes
This is what Balloon Fiesta is all about--a clear blue sky filled with
magnificent balloons. 27.2 MB
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Final Morning
Balloon Fiesta Park is alive with activity every morning long before
sunrise. 12 MB
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Lift Off!
Here's video of a hot air balloon as it lifts off from the AIBF Balloon
Field. 7.3 MB
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Visiting Vendors
We met lots of great people at Balloon Fiesta. Here's video of
some fellow vendors. 28.5 MB
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On the road to AIBF--
I spotted this sign en route from Reno to Albuquerque and
LOL'd. This is the west end of Interstate 40, where
it meets I-15 in Barstow, CA. Some clever highway department
sign maker wanted drivers to know how far it is to the east
end of this highway, where I-40 reaches the east coast at
Wilmington, NC.
Hmmm, if I average around 60 miles an hour and don't stop
for sleep I could stay on this one Interstate for almost 43
straight hours!
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Check THIS out!
A couple weeks after I posted this page a fellow
in North Carolina sent me this photo of the OTHER end of
Interstate 40. What fun! Thanks to Chris for sending me
this picture.
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The day
before.
This is the Balloon Field viewed from the south end on Thursday,
October 5.
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Another
picture from the south end of the Balloon Field, day before Fiesta
starts.
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Here's
the east side of Balloon Field on the day before Fiesta starts.
The row of tents on the left makes up "Main Street," where we vendors
are lined up. The Balloon Field is all quiet today, but Main
Street is buzzing with activity as vendors get ready for the big event!
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Looking
south on Main street from in front of Tropic Hut, day before Fiesta
starts.
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north on Main street from in front of Tropic Hut, day before Fiesta
starts. |
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There it
is! It's the day before Balloon Fiesta begins and Tropic Hut is
all set up and ready for business.
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Here's
what the crowds come to see; fantastic, colorful hot air balloons
filling a clear blue New Mexico sky.
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Meet Beth,
the personality plus gal from Plano Pins. Beth
loved our Java
Silkies and traded us boat loads of pins for them!
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These
charming fellows are Dave and Ed of NewMexico.org.
Their exhibitor stand, featuring a very impressive huge custom RV, was
situated directly across Main Street from the Tropic Hut stand.
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Here are
Jennifer, Tom, Kimberly and John of Angelic Candles Of
New Mexico. Jennifer and Kim are sisters, daughters of proud
father John. Tom is a friend of John's who happily jumped in to
help out during Balloon fiesta.
The Angelic Candles booth was a couple spaces up from Tropic Hut's.
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This is
Claudia, our next door neighbor at Balloon Fiesta and all around blond
glam girl. Local TV crews were on site to interview Claudia twice during the Fiesta.
Claudia's company, New Mexico
Scrapbooking, offers tourists well thought out kits for keeping
memories of traveling in the Land Of Enchantment.
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Dawn
Patrol, final morning of Balloon Fiesta.
This balloon went up every morning, weather permitting, before the sun
even started to come
up. It was called the Dawn Patrol. Its purpose was to check
conditions and radio back to the ground about wind speeds and
directions for the other balloon pilots.
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Tropic
Hut stand, last day of Balloon Fiesta.
It's 4:45 AM, it's cold and wet from a light rain that fell earlier,
and still the crowds are already starting to arrive and they want
coffee! Right through the last day of the event I could not
believe how many folks would start showing up so early. Who are
these people?
Maybe I'm just out of touch with so many early risers. I'm a
night person. But I was all too happy to join the morning scene
for the spectacular Balloon Fiesta!
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lemon-lime drinks,
strawberry smoothy, fruit smoothy recipes
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