Ventura County Star
By Rachel McGrath

Brightly colored hot air balloons floated into the sky as the sun came up over the mountains near Santa Paula on Saturday morning.

"They're flowers in the sky," Laurie Beckwith of Ventura said as she stood watching with her husband, Steve.

For others, the balloons looked like Christmas ornaments hanging on an invisible tree, as their slow-moving formation drifted westward.

Five-year-old Aaron Johnson of Camarillo watched in wonder. "They fly so high," he said.

Aaron, his 8-year-old sister Akimi and parents Ida and Jay joined hundreds of others who got up before dawn to attend the first Citrus Classic Balloon Festival at Santa Paula Airport.

"It's amazing," said Ida Johnson. "We wanted the kids to see it, and it's pretty cool, the whole process of setting them up and taking off."

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