When Tracy and I heard about this amazing event, we knew we had to participate!  Hundreds of families and friends showed up to get their personal over-sized paper lantern and s/mores kit!  People gathered around fire pits and made new friends.  It was fabulous!   Before the sun went down and the inflating of the lanterns began, there were crafts, music and time to write or draw your intention or something you were grateful for on your lantern.  We also got crayons..woohoo!  Just hanging out in great weather with awesome people would have been enough, but the music was great, we got some nachos and cheese and Tracy bought one of those air filled ‘hot dog bun’ seats…LOL  Well, that’s what I call them.  Two kids offered to take them down to the place where a machine was filling them so we didn’t have to run through the crowds gathering air!!!

Never having done anything like this before, we had no idea what to expect.  There were poles with wicks that you could pull your lantern over to inflate or just use a ground level flame.  It was pretty tricky holding the lantern down until it was fully inflated…it kept wanting to pull itself upward prematurely!  Once we got our up and we let go and looked into the sky, we were amazed at the feeling that came over us!  It was so wonderful.  Hundreds of ‘strangers’ gathering together for a common purpose…that’s always an unforgettable experience!  After awhile the sky was filled with golden lights as far as you could see. It took a couple hours for them to float out of sight…it was unbelievable!

Then, flame artists came out and performed for over an hour displaying their incredible skills.  It was a sight to behold.  The sun had set completely and the lights from the flame acts lit the place up!  We had so much fun going to something totally unfamiliar to you and ending up creating a terrific memory!