Seafair and the Blue Angels

two up, two down!

I think everyone who lives in northwest Washington knows about Seafair. It's been going on for 60 years and it all began as a plan to celebrate Seattle's centennial in 1951-1952. Ever since then it has grown from one parade and boat races to neighboring communities getting in on the action by planning additional activities such as marathons, festivals, pow-wows, parades, car shows, fairs, concerts and any other excuse a community might come up with to celebrate summer and make some money. (Not many tourists visit Seattle in the winter :) This year the celebration lasts from June 27-August 2.

SO ... we decided to see what it was all about by going to see the Navy Blue Angels yesterday afternoon. We WISELY took a shuttle to the event; we noticed there wasn't a single parking space for miles around the event on Lake Washington. People were dragging chairs, coolers, kids, cameras, sun glasses, and hats to sit on the shores of the lake. We stopped on our way to the shoreline to partake in some "fair food." I am sure we exceeded our fat grams allowance for all next week on a "brick" of fresh-cut french fries -- oh, so good...

I didn't lug my "big" camera along with me, so it was not easy to get any good pics of these guys thundering over us, but I did get a couple for the blog. For those interested, these guys (and one gal) fly F/A-18 Hornets. I tried to get a shot of two jets playing "chicken," but as you can imagine, my camera was not nearly quick enough for that (or I wasn't smart enough to click early enough!). It was an impressive show; unusual that they perform over water and hard to believe how close they fly to each other.

Unlike the past week, it was ONLY in the low 80's during the air show. And we were sitting in the SHADE, right by the water, so it was very pleasant. I won't tell you about the ride in the NOT-air-conditioned school bus on the way back to the parking lot. Does the term " bumper-to-bumper-" or stop-and-go-traffic give you any idea?