Plainbellied and I have made a concerted effort to be more connected to the community where we live. There are a number of things we either didn't know about or simply never went to before. We started with the camping trip we took recently. Since then, we found a nice little pizza place in town that everyone else already seemed to know about and a fifties-style diner in a town about twenty minutes north (that other people already knew as well).
Last weekend, we took another leap and went to the airshow that came to town. Let me give a little background to this. When I was a kid, I had a friend whose family invited me to do things with them occasionally. They took me to a Patriots game against the Jets once and professional wrestling another time (back when it was real). :) Well, at one point they invited me to an airshow. I must have been about ten years old at the time. The problem with the airshow was that they planned to go on a Sunday, which is problematic for religious reasons. While I understand my parents' reasons now, I was very upset at the time. To top it all off, my friends who went came to school the next day to tell me all about their helicopter ride at the airshow.
I have been jealous ever since, and I never got to an airshow until now. We were unable to go a year and a half ago for some reason, so this time we decided that we would go no matter what. We took Her Nibs and our friend Don't Mess with Texas came along, too, after Plainbellied's game. It was a great time. We saw biplanes doing things that should be against the law (of gravity--ha ha ha). They brought out an F-18 fighter jet, and it was absolutely crazy what that thing was capable of. Other than high-speed maneuvers, it actually stayed in the air at under 100 MPH, and it weighs 40,000 lbs. Later they had an F-16 and a wing-walker as well, but watching the F-18 alone was worth the price of admission.
To top it all off, we got to go up in a helicopter. Plainbellied's father flew helicopters in Vietnam, so she's always wanted to go up in one, too. We made sure to take Her Nibs, who had a great time. Plainbellied went in a different helicopter than Her Nibs and I, and hers did some crazy stunts with her in it. I kind of wish I had gotten to go in that one, but I had my ride. I'll probably never get to do it again, and it was totally worth it.
Even though we had a great time, we quickly learned that we were airshow neophytes. It turns out that they don't actually provide seating at these things. I expected bleachers or something, but when we got there everyone else had brought camping chairs. There was also only limited shade. Most people had gotten there early and staked out positions under the wings of airplanes. Luckily, Don't Mess with Texas brought some SPF 50 and we got only very mild sunburns. We also realized immediately that we should have brought the camera.
We also learned that airshows are really loud. Her Nibs got very adept at covering her ears. Jets make a ton of noise, and since we were really close to the runway it was more than I had ever experienced. Every time the F-18 turned away from us, we got a roar from the engines. Anyway, it was an incredible afternoon. We all wanted to immediately rent Top Gun. Luckily, none of us had the energy to follow through on that.
Next up: we're taking a trip to Miami Beach so I can go to a conference. Since I had to get a hotel anyway, we thought we'd make a family trip of it. Should be fun.
No comments:
Post a Comment