St. George is the sort of place where even a car that seems out of place can attract a bit of attention.
So when a hot air balloon landed in a residential neighbourhood Wednesday morning, it brought a big crowd of onlookers.
Nicole Brookes was having breakfast when her husband told her about the unexpected visitors.
“He was like ‘Honey, I think a hot air balloon just landed in the front of our property,’” she says.
Eric Van Allen, who was doing landscape work in the area, saw the balloon passing near him at a low altitude.
“It was pretty exciting to see,” he says.
Van Allen was worried that the balloon was about to crash. Brookes was worried that some sort of emergency had forced it to land in St. George. As it turned out, neither fear was true.
The balloon had simply reached the end of its run, and its operator was looking for an open space to bring it down in – something Brookes’ subdivision provided, despite obstacles like trees and a light post.
Everybody in the balloon was fine. After they landed, they toasted each other with a celebratory drink.
“Everyone was really wonderful and nice about it,” Brookes says.
The balloon was then packed up and taken away. It spent about an hour on the ground. Its memory will live much longer in the minds of people like Brookes’ two-year-old daughter Abigail.
St. George residents say hot air balloons drifting over the community used to be a common summertime sight, but fewer and fewer of them have been showing up in recent years.
With reporting by Tyler Calver
