Lanterns

On Saturday we went out to dinner with someone who was visiting the company from the U.S. We ate on the other side of the city at a restaurant beside Jinji Lake. Dinner was yummy, but after dinner we made a great discovery.... we looked out the window and saw all these twinkling lanterns in the sky (you can see them in the picture at the top). When we went outside to investigate, we saw people were selling these paper lanterns that once you light it rises up into the sky like a hot air balloon. Of course we had to buy one and test it out! At first the kids were really unnerved by it. They were really worried that they (or the balloon) would catch on fire. Really you can't blame them, these did seem to be a bit of a fire hazard. In fact I learned after the fact that they are illegal because of the potential fire hazard to buildings -- Ooops! We'll claim ignorance on this one. So, we launched one and later decided to do a second. The kids were excited about the second and even helped us to launch it. Not surprisingly, we drew quite a crowd as we were getting our lantern ready to launch. I felt like the punchline to a joke: how many laowis (foreigners) does it take to light a lantern? :-D

Is it just me, or does Tori's hair seem really close to the flame? Or at least too close for me....

Josh helping to hold the lantern as it filled with hot air.

Counting down: san, er, yi (or 3, 2, 1) until....

LIFTOFF!

There it goes!