Somehow I managed to wake up at the crack of dawn, and I made it out to the International Balloon Fiesta mass ascension. Today they were featuring special-shaped balloons. We have been to a mass ascension once before, and it really is amazing how many balloons there are. I heard an estimated 400 balloons lifted off yesterday, and it seemed like at least 200 or more lifted off today. The “box effect” wasn’t as pronounced as it was a couple of days ago, but there was a decent early morning drainage wind through the Rio Grande valley. The “box effect” is a local phenomenon where a northerly drainage wind occurs in the valley at the very low levels off of the surface, and just a few hundred feet above a southerly wind prevails. This allows balloonists to essentially land in the same place they lifted off from by following a vertical “box” path. Anyway, I snapped over 200 pictures within an hour, and here are a few of my favorites.