Climb Across America

Late last year, we stopped by Pocono Raceway in Pennsylvania, and we had a once-in-a-lifetime experience at the annual Sky Lantern Festival.

This year, we’re going to host our own little Sky Lantern Festival at home. Who says you can’t make spectacular travel-style memories at home?

Before we launched our lanterns into the sky, we wrote our hopes and dreams on each one. It felt like we were sending wishes off to come true. The kids loved that part.

It is pretty easy to build your lanterns at home, or you can buy them online. FYI, they’re biodegradable.

DIY Sky Lantern

What you’ll need:

1. Color Paper
2. Aluminum Foil
3. Plastic Straw
4. Transparent Tape
5. Cotton
6. Acetone/Kerosene or any other fuel.
7. A small container ( To Shape the aluminum Foil)
8. Copper wire ( any other Metal wire works just fine)
9. Thumb Pin
10. Scissors
11. Glue
12. Knife

Instructions:

Click Here

Here’s the science behind these fascinating lanterns. It uses hot air within the lantern to make it rise when the air around the outside of the lantern is cooler. A lantern has a candle or fuel cell which heats the air, and this hot air fills the sky lantern. And voila, it rises in the air.

The DIY version is still pretty tricky for little kiddos, so there is no shame in the BIY (buy-it-yourself) version.

Our night under the floating sky lanterns is one of my best travel memories to date. It may even be one of my best memories of all time.

I hope you enjoy creating this beautiful memory with your family too.