When I went birding at Kensington Metropark this weekend, I expected to see hickory, walnut, and maple trees changing into their brilliant fall color as well as gulls and waterfowl in Kent Lake.
What I didn’t expect was not one, not two, but three colorful hot air balloons slowly making their way northeast over the lake.
Caught me by surprise, since I knew hot air balloon festivals in southeast Michigan are typically in summer and sometimes in September.
I searched online, but couldn’t find any local hot air balloon festivals this weekend.
But I did discover there are southeast Michigan companies offering hot air balloon rides to see fall colors.
I checked the schedule for one hot air balloon company in nearby Oxford, Michigan and found they had a flight at the time we were at the park.
Mystery solved!