"The Bunny's up! The Bunny's up!" cheered kids of all ages in rabbit ears as the inflated Energizer Bunny rose over Turf Valley Resort's golf greens Thursday.

The world's tallest balloon, at 167 feet -- 178 including the basket -- as high as the Statue of Liberty, said a hot-pink-shirted crew member proudly, is going and going cross-country on the Hot Hare Tour but made a stop at the Preakness Celebration Balloon Festival May 15.

Pink is appropriate not only to match the enormous rabbit but also to represent his unusual femme pilot, Glo Kehoe of Albuquerque, N.M.

With a white puffy tail itself as big as a weather balloon, the Bunny is a crowd favorite.

But so was Turf Valley's own balloon, a multi-colored number in a bright checkered pattern.

One who certainly must have agreed was 86-year-old Marie Delcher, one of the lucky ones to enjoy an untethered balloon flight in that Turf Valley special. It's something she has dreamed of doing for 20 years, and the dream was finally fulfilled at the Preakness festivities by her son and co-passenger Charles Delcher, of Parkville.

Subject to the whims of the wind and the skill of pilot Bob Dicks, of Up and Away Balloons of Pennsylvania, the balloon headed over Route 70, eventually landing in a school yard, where neighbors came out and offered Delcher a chair while the balloon was deflated and loaded up by chasers.

"Is it always this beautiful?" she had asked Dicks as they were coming down low right over the treetops, talking to folks in their yards, just like in "The Wizard of Oz."

And yes, he says, it is.

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