A friend of mine at work invited me to come and volunteer with her at the Tigard Hot Air Balloon Festival. Hot air balloons intrigue me, so I said I would love the chance to actually work on the crews in charge of launching the balloons (the fact that I had to get up at 4 am to do it, however not so fun).

So this morning I crawled out of bed at 4am to meet her at our office by 5am. We arrived at the gates for the festival and found our way over to the crew we were assigned to help. While it was a lovely sunny day (it was 70 degrees outside by 8am!), the winds decided to pick up. Unfortunately, 30 MPH winds are not the optimal condition to launch balloons, so we had to forgo the launch today. Instead we all grabbed some bagels or donuts and juice and sat around chatting with the pilot about his experiences with hot air balloons. It was very interesting and I am looking forward to tomorrow (I volunteered Sim and I to help on Saturday morning). Pray for light winds!!