The Balloon Museum

In case you didn't know, Albuquerque has a very rich history of hot air ballooning. Apparently there really was nothing to do in Albuquerque for a LONG time. Well it turns out to be a good place to hot air balloon because the air currents circulate across the valley meaning that one can land almost exactly where he took off simply by controlling altitude. And that place would be the Balloon Park, which also houses a museum.

Not surprisingly, you don't need a very large space in order to detail the history of hot air balloons and still have a couple of exhibits that are only remotely related. However, they did have some really cool and fun things set up for the kids. The first hot air balloon carried a sheep, a chicken, and something else that isn't a natural enemy of the other two.

Making paper helicopters...

One of the coolest things was a hot air balloon simulator. On an unrelated note, NEVER let Katie borrow your hot air balloon.

One of the more scientific exhibits was set up to let you experiment with different temperatures inside a miniature hot air balloon that ran along a wire. They had a good 40 feet of head room to play with, which really gave you a feel for how sensitive bouyancy is to temperature even in an enclosed room.

Among the pictures of burning and mangled zepplins they had a cut open solid metal NASA weather pod that was pretty cool.