SIGHTING: OKOBOJI, IOWA (UNITED STATES)

Witness Testimony

"I was helping pack up the car from a day of sailing & playing at the marina at Okoboji Boats. It was definitly dark- sun had just set. I'm opening the passanger car door when for some reason i looked up at the sky. Coming across the very top of the tree line in the residential area which surrounds the marina was a deep, bright orange glowing sphere. I'm guessing about 36-42 inches in diameter perhaps a little larger like the size of a beach ball, for example. I immedialty shouted "look girls a chinese latern". In my brain all i could think was that this was some sort of fireworks toy like the parachutes we shot off as children but I've never heard of chinese latern fireworks & I don't know why that popped into my head. The only chinese latern reference I know in my world is a blooming plant called a chinese latern that produces little round orange balls. That's the same shape & color as this object in the sky- so I was watching & waiting for something to happen like fireworks. But it just kept floating there in the same place. No sound. I turned around to see where the kids were- if they too were seeing this but they were exhausted and already in the back seat of the car. I looked back up at the sky and it seemed to be slowly moving up & away from the tree tops moving in a very slow pulsating sort of way, like the way a jelly fish moves through the water. Suddenly a man was at my car door and we were both watching the sky again I said "chinese latern" and he looked at me as though I were crazy and repeated with a question "chinese latern???" I replied "I've got 2 kids with me so right now that's a chinese latern" In that brief exchange I took my eyes off the object and again turned around to see the kids were still in car- their mother had her head in the trunk packing up coolers, toys etc. I couldn't have taken my eyes off it for more than a few seconds then I looked back up at the sky and it was no more than an orange dot- now super far up & away. How could it move that fast, I asked myself. There is no way it could be that far away in 3 or 4 seconds. But it was. I could still see the distinctive orange color but it was so far up at this point it was a mere dot in the sky. The man next to me was gone. I wish I had gotten his name.I never felt scared, just curious. I've always believed that UFO's do exist but have never thought I've seen one. Once we left parking lot I knew it was a UFO."