Here are the Blue Angels all lined up and looking good. Vanessa, Nathan, and I set up camp in the grass across from where these planes were parked.
Vanessa had grand plans indeed for the airshow this year, and they might have come to fruition had I not woke up on Saturday morning and quickly decided I wasn’t ready to get out of bed. Let me tell you about her plans.
To her credit – while I was lounging around in bed – she had packed a nice fancy lunch, a bunch of coloring books for Nathan in case he were to get bored, a towel to enjoy a nice picnic on, and three collapsible camp chairs for us to use while we watched the show.
Her goal was to get out the door by 9:00 a.m. (didn’t happen) and get CPT done in the car (did happen) while we slowly made our way toward the airshow. And when I say slowly, I mean slowly. When it comes to the airshow, we plan on two hours of waiting in traffic to get there and get parked. It’s literally miles of backed up traffic no matter what way you come from.
So here’s how it went down: 11:00 a.m. we departed from the gas station on the corner of Boniface parkway and Debarr road heading north towards our destination. And as you can tell, I only created a minor delay in the schedule of the day.
We were all gassed up, meat-sticked up, and coffied up. In case you don’t know, let me tell you that meat-sticks and coffee are the breakfast of winners. On a side note, it was at this time that Vanessa stumbled upon a radio station we never listen to, and I’m telling you I couldn’t have cringed harder if I tried at what was playing. I don’t know the song, but they were going on about wanting a red neck girl. Vanessa thought it was hilarious that I found it so awful.
Nathan doing his ‘red’ puffs before CPT. I say ‘red’ because it’s easier. It’s really albuterol but we just use the code name ‘red’. We have an orange puffer as well, that we call the ‘orange puffer’.
Once in traffic the long waiting game could begin. It’s basically one hour of time wasted for every mile moved forward. But Vanessa brought trivia cards to help pass the time as Nathan did his treatment.
This is the third airshow that Nathan has been to, so we’re starting to refine our routine. Perhaps next time though, we will just ride our bikes there. Vanessa keeps mentioning (roughly 118 times) that it would be a good idea. That might possibly work out well though, because I could sleep in, guilt free (not that I feel any guilt) and still make it to the airshow way before the majority of people. It’s really not that far away from our house either.
But this year, I just felt like taking the vehicle. The deal breaker really came down to three simple things. First, I didn’t know if it was going to be rainy at any point during that day. The second reason, was food. And the third reason was coffee, as mentioned above.
And two hours from the moment we left the gas station we were finally parking in a huge grassy field with thousands of other cars. Good thing I didn’t take note of where we parked the car because after the show we couldn’t find it. Vanessa did try to remember, I have to hand it to her on that one, but it was wrong. In the end, we weren’t at all where we thought we should have been parked.
As you can see, Vanessa is giving Nathan one of his enzymes (code name Zs) while he’s making crazy faces as usual.
We grabbed the camp chairs, backpack, and lunch box from the truck; locked it up and headed towards the entrance. After a quick search from the security guards we were allowed to proceed through the gate. Now I have to be honest and state that I didn’t think they were going to let us in because of the backpack and lunch box. But they did, and Vanessa was right.
After choosing a nice spot in the grassy field at the very far end of the airshow grounds, we figured we had enough time to wander around and take some pictures as Nathan explored all of the cool vehicles and planes. But first, we definitely needed to purchase a few snacks. And it was at this time that I realized Nathan can’t keep a steady pace if he’s eating while trying to walk.
The goal of the day was to do some exploring, and then head back to our chairs so we could film the Blue Angel’s that were scheduled to perform at 4:00 that afternoon. It didn’t quite happen as planned though, because they began prepping to take off earlier than we expected. So we found ourselves rushing all the way back to the far end where we left our chairs to start filming them. We were speed walking something fierce. Luckily, they hadn’t taken off by the time we got there. And everything went smoothly from then on. For now though, I hope you’re all ready for some pictures. Because I have pictures.
I can’t help it, he looks so handsome! Either that, or he’s giving me a cheesy smile and he’s about to fall asleep. He looks tired, that’s why I said that.
Nathan told me he had a brain freeze from eating the shaved ice too fast. I think that’s the reason for the crazy smile. He’s also sitting in the C-5 Galaxy. Just FYI.
I’m going to do my best to describe this vehicle since I didn’t actually take a picture of the whole thing. I’ll probably sound silly but I would say it’s a lot like a huge Hummer. It was a tan color and made with really thick metal. My guess is that it was built to withstand landmines. I could be way off base, but that’s what I got.
Here we have Mister Nathan standing in front of an F-22 Raptor striking one of his signature poses.
Before I continue, I feel that I need to add a little more information about the picture below. We didn’t notice this particular little plane on the way in to the airshow, but we certainly noticed it on our way out. I’m taking an educated guess here and I’m going to say this plane is Canadian. I’m not sure but I think it’s because of the maple leaf near the tail.
So as Nathan was standing by the plane, he starts pretending to kick the plane. Nathan does weird things like that all the time I know. But I didn’t notice him doing it because I was preoccupied with looking at the little screen on the phone and trying to take a good picture.
Anyway, he got reprimanded a little by the pilot, which unfortunately you can’t see in this picture. The funny thing is, we didn’t realize what was going on at the time because (and we’re assuming) he spoke with a thick French accent. The name on his uniform was definitely French too.
I was kind of excited because I wanted to try and say something in French but I didn’t get to because I was busy trying to figure out if we were being bad parents by letting our child run wild. I decided against it in the end though because I simply have a hard time understanding Québec French. And again, I’m assuming that’s where they were from.
This is a plane. I don’t know what type it is. I could probably do some research and figure it out pretty quickly, but I’m in the middle of trying to finish this post. Thank you for your understanding.
This picture was taken near the end of the day, just a little bit before they kicked everyone out and closed the gates for the evening. There was a line of people waiting to get in the cockpit but he decided he didn’t want to do that, he’d rather just sit here.
Nathan did an awesome job of keeping up with us as we walked around. There wasn’t a single complaint from him the whole time. And for someone with short legs, that’s a lot of walking. It did catch up with him however. On the way home he crashed pretty hard.
We accidentally went the wrong direction after the airshow so it gave Nathan ample time to take a snooze. Oh yeah, we scored that big bag of popcorn for free. Someone must have inadvertently dropped it on the ground and we were in the right place at the right time. Sorry in advance if you were that person.
Before I finish this post, I’ll leave you all with some footage of the Blue Angels during the 2016 Arctic Thunder airshow. After all, that was my main goal. Usually it’s the Thunderbirds performing, but this year they changed it up and we got to see the Blue Angels instead. And as an added bonus I added some footage of the Raptor demonstration. I hope you enjoy the videos.
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