Balloons over rural Groningen

What an incredible day this has been. It didn't start as good as I wanted it to, though. We went to Hellendoorn Adventure Park, an amusement park. On the way there, Inge and Ellis were whiney and didn't like anything. Just what a parent needs while driving. When we were in the park, Nienke joined in on "the fun" and started whining too. At lunchtime Martine and I managed to get them in a better mood and the rest of the day was just great! Lots of fun in lots of rides and happiness all around. On the way back, Nienke, Inge and Ellis all feel asleep in the car. A very quiet drive home. Lots of pictures taken and I was sure there would be something in there for a blip.

After a quick dinner Martine pointed out that the sky was looking great: nice clouds with lots of sunbeams. I took some shots and was sure I was going to blip one of those.

Then I thought that if we would continue to have clouds, we might have a stunning sunset. However, the clouds appeared to be moving away. I wanted to check if there were more coming and if there would be, I would be going out to capture the sunset. It's only 50 metres or so to the fields where I would have a good view at the sky so I could see if there were going to be more clouds.

I arrived at the field and found the scene you are looking at. Actually, there were even more balloons but it wasn't possible to get them all in one frame. I knew about the Balloon Fiesta and would have gone there if we hadn't had tickets for the Adventure Park. Seeing them drifting by so close to home was a great surprise to end a great day. Oh, and I managed to capture a running hare too, all four legs off the ground.

Of all the shots of the balloons I took, I like this best. I might upload some more to Flickr later, but not tonight...