A Weekend Getaway in . . . .Walla Walla?

Yep, Walla Walla. Known for it's onions and the Ace Novelty Co from Looney Toons days. Well, we came for neither of those (although we ARE still looking for that Novelty Store). Instead, we came for a balloon stampede, car show and fireworks display. After our busy, hectic week at good ole LaCroix we were both so anxious for our weekend getaway that we planned kinda last minute - about 10 days ago. One evening we were talking and I brought up this event and Rick said he had just been looking into it too. So we jumped into action and grabbed one of the few available rooms left in this town. Not the best room in town but prolly not the worst either. Actually the worst thing about it is the bed, sags in the middle. We'll throw it on the floor tonight and see if we sleep better.

We actually set the alarm for 5:30 AM to get up in time to see the balloons take off. There were about 30 balloons I would say, and hundreds of people. We were not restricted from going around the balloons in any way. We were able to look right inside the balloons, while they were still lying on the ground and when they went up. There were so many camera geeks like us, it was cool. We got some really interesting shots. The event took place across the street from the fairgrounds and there was stuff to look at there too.

When the balloons were all gone we went back to the motel and walked down Main Street to town, just a couple blocks. There were twinkle lights in the trees, lots of statues and blooming things, interesting buildings and stores. A very photographic town. We found a farmer's market on the far side of town too. 2 of the stores that we decided we had to go back and visit when they were open were a unique toy store called the Inland Octopus and a record store (reminded me more of an old "head shop" from the 70's) called "Hot Poop". Rick just had to get a t-shirt from that place.

After a fantastic lunch in a grill and pub we went back to the fairgrounds for the car show. Rick took about 200 shots and I took about 300. There were some very flashy classic cars. Here's a sample of what I got:


As soon as we made it through all the cars we went next door and caught a horse race. I got a few good shots of that too:

We went back to our room for the afternoon to shower and recover from about 100 deep knee bends (taking those car shots). Then we returned one more time to the fairground for the balloon glow and firework show. It was a first time for those kind of shots so it was purely experimental and Rick and I made some of the same mistakes. We got basically no good balloon shots and only a few good firework shots. But it's all a learning experience. The main thing is we're having a great time and enjoying our time together.

One more day with no real plans. We'll see what this leads to . . . . .