Jubilee Festival

This weekend we set off on a little adventure. We drove up to Decatur (Alabama) with Grandmother and Grandfather to check out the hot air balloon festival. I'd read about it and wanted to go, but we really didn't know what we were getting into. And, the weather forecast called for rain from Friday evening through next week, so it seemed unlikely we'd really get to see any hot air balloons. Still, it's only about an hour and a half drive, and we didn't have any other plans, so we all decided to give it a try.
We really had a great trip. Our hotel had a small indoor pool which the girls loved. Friday night we ate at a local BBQ place whose BBQ chicken with white sauce is listed on the 100 dishes to eat in Alabama. It was good, but we like Full Moon better. After dinner we let the girls swim awhile. Saturday morning we woke up EARLY to head to the field for the hot air balloons. This was one of those occasions when I was thankful that my girls are early risers: according to the schedule, there was a balloon race beginning at 6:30am. We parked and started walking down the street when we started to hear people saying that it might be cancelled. It wasn't raining, but the winds were starting to pick up so the pilots decided not to launch. We were disappointed, but a lot of the pilots went ahead and inflated their balloons which was an awesome sight. After a big breakfast and another swim, we headed back to Birmingham. So, it was a quick trip, but it was fun and I'd certainly like to try to go again. I heard that they didn't launch last year either; I suppose the weather needs to be perfect in order for things to go according to plan!