The day was beautiful - clear, blue skies with a fair amount of wind, and cool enough for a jacket. We found parking fairly close to where we wanted to be (amazing!) and brought our picnic lunch and blanket and found a great spot on the lawn to watch the practice.
There were several pilots flying small airplanes and doing absolutely insane acrobatics! Seriously - these people are certifiable! However, one of them, Julie Clark, was piloting this small plane. Julie was one of the first women Captains for Hughes Airwest, and we got to visit with her at the recent AirWest reunion, so it was great to see her do her stuff! Technology is an amazing thing, as the stunt pilots were able to talk to the crowd from their airplanes!
Julie did some amazing stunts, and Lee caught some great shots of her. There was also a couple of fly-bys of a United Airlines 747, a C-130, and of course, the screaming Blue Angels!! It was a thrilling show and we LOVED it! It turned out that we were very lucky to have gone on Friday, as fog on Saturday caused the Blue Angels to cut their show short - when you're going that fast, that close together, it's important to be able to see!
Hailey, Sean and Jacob will probably remember seeing the Blue Angels do their stuff over the beach at Waikiki when we were there. They take your breath away!
In addition to the air show, there was also a parade of ships on Saturday. There was a Coast Guard cutter and a couple of Canadian ships participating. There was a notable absence of US military ships, which are apparently busy in other parts of the world.
It was a great day, and it's on the calendar for the practice day for next year's Fleet Week!!
Julie Clark
More Julie
Upside down, going into a loop
Falling, falling, falling!
A loop with smoke and colored smoke. This was done to Lee Greenwood's song "Proud to be an American". Gave me goosebumps!
The C-130. This is a really big and a really loud airplane! We had seen one up close and personal in Tucson when Cody took us to the airplane museum.
The Blue Angels! They fly so closely together that they could be one aircraft!
The roar of these aircraft was amazing!
A screaming fly-by. In addition to the four planes that flew in close formation, there were two other jets that did aerial stunts, including flying in from opposite directions and passing each other with seemingly only inches between them. It was fabulous!!
The Coast Guard cutter that participated in the Parade of Ships. This is the Boutwell.
What a great day! Life is GOOD!!
2 comments:
You do have the good life, and you deserve every second of it!
What a great way to spend a day! Looks like it was beautiful : )
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