Airplanes and sunshine

And a whole bunch of people...

It's SeaFair weekend here in Seattle and that can mean only one thing: the Blue Angels are in town!

Ok, technically it also means there are hydroplane races, but I've kind of lost interest in that since I grew up. All those years where the Budweiser boat was winning everything pretty much killed my interest in the sport. That and the fact that I don't know anyone who ties up to the Log Boom so there's no on-site viewing...

But the Angels are something else. Unlike the boat races, they're over in an hour. And I do like those limited time commitment activities, I must say. So like last year we drove down to Rainier and I-90, parked, and biked up through the tunnel to the bridge deck where we oohed and ahhhed with the throng. Well, except for the kids...they mainly said "when can we go home?"

The weather was more interesting this year...last year it was blue skies all around. This year things started off cloudy, then cleared up. So as you can see from the photos below (and more in the gallery).

We got out to the bridge around 1, in time to see the A-10 Warthog give a demonstration and then fly around with this little prop plane. I heard some guy around us call it a spitfire, but I really don't know what it was. It was definitely cool to see the two flying side-by-side in formation, though...

After that there was a short break, and then the Blue Angels show started. I don't know what went wrong with the #6 plane, but they started the show with 5: the diamond 4 plus one solo pilot. Which kind of made some of the solo tricks less exciting, since the stunts weren't done flying directly at another plane...Here are some shots of the diamond:

I like this one 'cause it looks like a stop-motion series

Eventually the other solo showed up (plane #7) and they did a few tricks together. The only problem was that by that time there was so much smoke that you couldn't see too well from the bridge...

By the end of the show it was pretty clear, giving a nice backdrop to the final "pavilion"(or is it "tent"?) stunt. All in all another great show!