May the Good Winds Be With You

As we were standing around watching the Balloon Fiesta kick into high gear, a pick up truck pulled up and out poured darthvaderballoon.com. Yup, we managed to land ourselves a front row seat to see the Darth Vader Balloon. Done up in perfect George Lucas style. And yes, Darth deserves his very own blog entry.

Not long after the truck began to unload, an army of storm troopers marched in two by two:

Then Darth himself showed up - complete with voice altering technology:

Even these guys started to mill about, as did several other characters I'm not sure of:

But the balloon team would not be distracted from their ultimate mission.

First the basket was set up and the balloon unrolled; there was such great potential in Anakin at this point:

The team started to grow and cultivate the young Jedi - but not with hot air, there was no anger in him yet:

Tragically, Drath's ego started to expand, as does his head:

A funky chicken quickly escapes before Lord Vader can reign terror in the skies:

Finally the hot air of anger and pride started to lift Darth as he pushed away his fond memories of childhood:

Fully upright, Darth was now ready to take his place as the Master of the Dark Side:

The Emperor lifts off, ready to meet his destiny:

Is it just me, or is Darth looking like he's about to beat the crap out of the balloon guy with glasses?
Oh, the life lessons one can learn from Balloon Fiesta!