Tyndall Air Show

The air show was slated for this past weekend, March 28th and 29th. On Friday and Saturday, there was soaking rain, booming thunder and lightening streaking across the sky. The bay out back was slowly creeping in for a "visit". We decided to stay put, even though we were quite disappointed. We heard some people actually ventured out that day for the show, and we heard a few planes zooming over.

On Sunday, we decided that after church, we'd head home for a quick lunch, change, and drive to base to see some of the show. This was the first show that the kids and I had ever been to! As we were waiting in line for the bus to drive us to the flightline side of base, we could see planes high in the sky, dropping out army guys with parachutes. Maybe it is because I am now a mother, or maybe I am older (and wiser?!), but seeing them freefalling for what seemed to be too long made me silently screech, "Open you chute! OPEN YOUR CHUTE!!!!" When they did let their chutes go, they drifted peacefully to the ground, followed by trails of bright red smoke. One of them even purposely let go of his first chute to give us all a good fright. :D

Sunday was a much nicer day weather-wise. It was sunny and warm, but still cool enough to be able to wear light jackets, which helped with sun exposure. We checked out all the planes and watched a lot of demonstrations. The Blue Angels were excellent! I can't believe they can get so close to each other without crashing, but they've been doing it for years.

We got to the air show around 1:30 p.m. Around 4, country music star Darryl Worley was to perform. Dave had to set up the stage on Friday, and he wanted to be able to help Sunday after the show. He was going to bring us to the buses so we could head home, but the lines were ridiculously long, so we decided we'd just stay for the concert. The concert was good, even though I only knew a few songs and we were all wiped out from standing around in the sun all day. We ended up staying for Dave and his class to take down the stage, which meant that we didn't leave until almost 8 p.m.! The kids were really well-behaved, all things considered. We checked out an F-15 and F-22 that were in the hangar and the kids found things to play with to busy themselves. Dave also said we'd get pizza for supper, so I am sure that helped! :D

Here are some photos from yesterday's show:




A nice and quiet F-22!




F-22.




A screeching F-22 Raptor.




The boys posing for a photo by a little recruiting plane. Notice Stephen with the one hand over his ear... He spent most of the time with both hands over his ears. I don't think one will cut it, though! :)




Rachel was NOT impressed with the F-22s!!