On Christmas Eve Greg and I went driving around to see all the pretty Christmas lights. We were on our way home through downtown Pullman when we saw a big group of people crossing the street together. We were curious about what they were doing, so we pulled over and joined them. There was lots of excited talking and laughing, and then these lanterns started floating up to the sky. I had never seen them before! We just saw the movie Tangled a couple weeks ago, and I thought it was such a cool idea. I didn't know those lanterns were real! (I posted a video at the bottom of the post...)
It was kind of a funny place to send them off because we were on the corner of a busy intersection with lots of power lines criss-crossing and going over the road. One lantern got stuck on the power line and was positioned so the fire was burning directly ON the wire.
Greg had the idea to throw snow balls at it, so he did. A few people joined in, but it was Greg's snowball that put the fire out. (He was very proud of that.) A couple other lanterns bounced around on the power lines and came close to getting stuck, but they all ended up ok.
Oh, and one hit the power line and then floated down and landed in the middle of the busy road. Some brave person ran out into traffic to grab the flaming lantern and toss it back into the sky. (The lanterns were made out of special flame-resistant material, so they didn't catch fire at all.)
As I gazed into the sky at the 20-30 beautiful glowing orbs floating off in to space, I wondered how many forest fires they would start. (It was probably ok since it's winter and everything is covered in snow...but you never know.)
It turns out that the large group of people came from a church across the street. They were probably having a special Christmas Eve service. I was glad we happened to see them and got to watch the launch of the lanterns. They were pretty neat to watch.
This is a quarter that I found in the parking lot of our apartment complex. I just thought it was interesting and wanted to share. I wonder how it got bent.
7 comments:
Oooo, Holly, that's so neat! I've never seen that before, either--only in Tangled. hahahaha...just haven't been in the right place at the right time, I guess. Glad you got to see that and glad you posted it. Very cool! That's funny about Greg dislodging the stuck lantern with a snowball. Very pretty Christmas lights, too. Weird about that bent quarter. Take it to the bank to exchange it. Hey, it's 25 cents!
Oh, well, Greg didn't knock the lantern down...He just put out the flame in the lantern. When we left, all the church people went back to their church and the lantern was still stuck up on the power line.
They do those lanterns in Brazil, except that some catch on fire while ascending, and then the fireballs lands on roofs and in other things, and everyone scrambles to put out the fires, and then they are mad and saying they shouldn't do lanterns, but they keep doing it anyway. I tried to make one but it would not go up. I used a super-thin plastic bag and a candle, but the candle was too heavy, I guess.
Having watched Tangled and saw those lanterns, I found it interesting that you got to see the real deal in your town.
Sounds like you had a fun evening.
Thanks for posting your adventure.
That's really cool. I wondered what happened if they caught fire. that could be scary.
That is so cool you got to see that in person! I would love to be a part of that.....in the middle of a big field. That is funny to think of forest fires as you admire the pretty laterns.
Ellie and I watched your video again. Ellie says "I like your video about the floating lanterns!" "Bye Holly, Bye Greg!" From Lory and Ellie "and, tell Holly about this video and tell her to look at it again" "Everybody likes it, Byeeee"
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