I woke up to a loud chicken-related ruckus outside. I have a friend at work who used to have chickens and she had warned me that they can be a little loud when they're laying their eggs. Soooo…. since it could be any day now and I have no idea what sounds an egg-laying chicken makes, I got all excited and ran outside to check, but nope. I was half-asleep when I heard them, so I don't really recall all that well, but I'm guessing something just startled them. Oh, well….. someday soon.

But, since I was outside, I got to see something as equally impressive as the long-awaited eggs. First though, let me explain… we see hot air balloons all the time. During the late spring, summer, and early fall, they are a daily occurrence. They take off just about every evening about two miles from our house, usually two or three of them, sometimes only one. I think five is the most I've ever seen at once. We can see them from our house, but they're always in the distance and floating farther away. Sometimes after work, we'll be driving past the little airport just in time to watch them take off too. That's always fun! Those are the days when I enjoy the stop-and-go traffic jam… we're surrounded by farmland (which is not common around the Seattle area), and it's just a beautiful site, very peaceful. Anyway, we do have a tendency to take hot air balloons for granted around here.

Back to this morning….. I was checking on the chickens and I heard the distinctive "ssshhhhh" sound of the hot air balloon, and looked up and one was directly overhead. We've been here 5 years, and I've only seen one float by our house once before (I think the sunrise runs take off from a different location. I'm sure they've probably floated by our house more than twice in all that time, but I've only been awake and outside to witness it once before… ). The other time, the balloon was a lot closer (I could see the people!), but I think this time was really cool, because it was directly overhead! I got to see the hot air ballooon from the bottom up, which was an interesting perspective. It was overcast today and the clouds were really bright, but I managed to get a semi-decent picture. 

In case you've ever wondered what a hot air balloon looks like from directly underneath, your curiousity can now rest at ease!   Personally, I think it kind of looks like some kind of jelly-fish.