Living less than one mile from the largest Navy base in the world definitely has its perks. I cannot begin to describe the feeling of hearing the National Anthem in the mornings at 8:00 a.m. and taps at night when the sun has finally set. Growing up it was nice for my mom because her work was always pretty close to the house, but far beyond anything was being able to see The Blue Angels perform right in our own hometown!
Now for a while now The Blue Angels have been in a hiatus due to the government funding, but I am pleased to announce their return! This past weekend I took my little cousin, Liam, and D.J. to see the show. Liam was a little expert. He knew everything you could about the planes. He was giving us lessons on certain aircrafts and the history behind some of them as well. It was perfect since this was D.J.'s first time seeing anything like this!
When we arrived around 1 p.m. most people were already there, so the traffic wasn't terrible. We had to park about 15 minutes away and poor little Liam had some tired legs when we got to the planes!
He was a trooper though, let me tell ya! When we finally made it, we
checked out some of the jets they had on display. Different planes from
all the squadrons at the air station as well as old time planes and
prop planes.
Side note- how precious is this picture. I am in love.
After we checked out the jets, we decided to find a spot to sit. The front row was crazy crowded, so we settled for a spot a little further back with less people. I mean the planes are in the sky anyways right?! There were a few things that happened on the ground before the jets did a demonstration in the sky. The Shockwave Jet Truck was one of them. This truck is one of a kind. It runs at over 300 mph racing airplanes and holds the world record for full size trucks at 376 mph in the Guiness Book of World Records. It has 36,000 horsepower and have enough power to accelerate at 3Gs vertical, which is as much as the Space Shuttle!
Once the jets started to fly this happened...
...what better view than on top of a 6 foot 6 best buddy?!
When the Blue Angels started flying, Liam was very excited! He let us know that if four of the planes are flying together, that means its jets 1, 2, 3, and 4. While they get the attention of the audience, jets 5 and 6 were off being the "trouble makers" that would come in and scare the crowd with a quick fly by or upside down crossover!
The team ended up having to cut the show short due to the rain, but that allowed us to get right up front for some awesome pictures. Liam was stoked to be able to see the planes land in formation and present the planes to the crowd.
And to top off the awesome show they did, Liam got the autographs of all the pilots and even got his picture taken with them! It was such a proud moment to be able to say thank you to those pilots who serve for our freedom. These pilots are the top of the top. They are the face of the Navy, so to say it was an honor to meet them is an understatement.
By the end of the day, my little man was exhausted and I had a husband with some sore shoulders. If you ever have the opportunity to go to an air show, I highly reccommend it! Such a great experience and truly humbling to see how talented our military's pilots are.
