Floating Lanterns of Death

My Thanksgiving break was filled with food, fun, family, and friends. One night that I spent with my friends resulted in a rather interesting experience. I technically did something that was on my bucket list, but it kind of went awry.

This past Saturday, some of us went out to eat to celebrate the birthday of one of our friends. Afterwards, we all went back to that friend's house because she had a surprise for us - floating lanterns. We were all really excited, so we quickly went outside and tried to send them off. That's where things got interesting. 

We couldn't get the lanterns to light with the lighter, so we made a torch with a paper plate and then tried to light the lanterns. The lanterns all just kept catching on fire and burning up before we could send them off. After four or so tries, we finally got one to fill up with enough air to let it go, so we sent in up into the sky. When it was about twenty or thirty feet in the air, someone in our group exclaimed how beautiful it was, and then a split second later it went up in flames.

We all immediately started freaking out about the flying ball of fire that was now swaying back and forth across the sky above our heads. We kept nervously waiting for it to land on one of the dozen cars that were parked up and down either side of the street, or to burn someone's yard or house. After dancing across the sky for what felt like forever, but in all reality was probably less than thirty seconds, the flaming remnants of the once beautiful lantern finally fell to the ground halfway down the street. Clearly, we sent the guys to go stomp out the flames while we all laughed and tried to process what had just happened. 

Even though the floating lanterns didn't work quite as planned, they definitely made for a memorable night and a great story.