WASILLA — Palmer and Wasilla residents who spotted a giant balloon cruising over their neighborhoods over the last week aren’t imagining things.
A hot air balloon really was floating above Palmer and Wasilla Saturday and again early this week, touching down briefly in a potato field on Bogard Road late Tuesday morning before floating off into Wasilla.
The 85-foot balloon is owned and operated by Alaska Helicopter Tours, which also runs the Alaska Glacier Lodge near the Knik Glacier. The balloon will be used for glacier tours, at events in Mat-Su and Anchorage, and to take tourists on rides in the skies above the region, said Brandon Schmidt, who runs the company’s marketing…