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"But I have heard the big bang described as being like a balloon being blown up. There are dots on the deflated balloon which represent galaxies but when the balloon is inflated the dots all rush away from each other at the same speed. So why does the observation of far off galaxies not reflect them as being even more distant..."

Light travels at a finite speed. So it takes time for light from that youthful galaxy on another part of the "balloon" to reach our galaxy. And while it's catching up with us, the balloon keeps expanding, and our galaxy is getting older and older. Finally, the light reaches us, and we see a still-young galaxy. If you want to see it when it's "our age", just keep watching and waiting, and be very patient, and live for a very long time.

So do the galaxies expand faster than the speed of light? If we all started out at the same place (the big bang), then would these young galaxies being on the other side of the balloon expand faster than the speed of light, for instance, we are going one direction at light speed and they are going the other direction at light speed, is this twice light speed?