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An Evening Over the Bay and a Balloon Fiesta

·San Francisco, California·#photography#fall#bay area#festival#hot-air-balloons
A city's lights illuminate a bay and landscape beneath a fog bank and a gradient twilight sky.

A late September evening, looking out over the Bay Area as the lights started to come on. There's a particular kind of quiet that settles in at dusk, with the fog just sitting on the horizon. A pretty standard view for this time of year.

A couple of weeks later, I was somewhere else entirely for the annual hot air balloon fiesta. We got there for an early morning launch. The first few balloons went up against a perfectly clear blue sky, just drifting along.

Then came the main event. Hundreds of them filling the sky at once, including all the special character shapes. It's a strange thing to see a giant pair of bees, a rabbit, a turtle, and a train all floating together. You stand on the ground and just watch this slow, colorful, and completely silent parade float by above you.

Several colorful hot air balloons float across a bright blue sky, with a fence and trees at the bottom.Numerous colorful hot air balloons ascend into a partly cloudy blue sky at different distances.Numerous colorful hot air balloons, many in unique shapes like a pig and bees, fill a blue sky.Many colorful hot air balloons, some shaped like animals, float against a clear blue sky.Two large bee-shaped hot air balloons hold hands amidst numerous other balloons against a clear blue sky.Many character-shaped hot air balloons, including a stagecoach and a turtle, ascend in a clear blue sky.A large, light brown rabbit-shaped hot air balloon carrying a person in a basket floats under a blue sky.A tan bunny-shaped hot air balloon with pink ears and a red nose carries a person high in a clear blue sky.

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