Saturday with the Angels

                           

Up early in the morning, eyes practically glued shut and my most beloved is saying, “Hurry up, honey, let's go!” I want coffee and a nap. My body doesn't agree that it's morning. My hair is sticking up all over the place and won't comb down. He sits me in front of the laptop with coffee. I stare at the 'puter, but can't figure out what to do next. I'm still sleeping, for cryin' out loud! Why, oh why did I promise to go to the air show with them? What happened to sleeping in on your day off? UGH.

I pour myself into my clothes, grab a jacket, the laptop, my purse and the camera. We lock up the house and get into old Betsy. She's a pretty comfortable one as cars go. Nice big leather seats that are adjustable, 4 doors and as old as she is, she hums a tune as she rides along. We stop to get cash to blow at the air show. Then DH decides we should stop for breakfast. Yay! I can do breakfast. They have more coffee at the restaurant. I need caffeine to function.

The sky is overcast. I wonder if the planes will even fly? Rob is so excited that I don't care if they don't fly. We're going to the show. The Blue Angels will be the hit of the day. We fount Pt. Mugu Naval Air Station without many problems. All we had to do was follow the cars to the entrance. It seems everyone in SoCal is here. Thank goodness for the handicapped placard. We can park fairly close. I wish we had a wheel chair for times like this.

I got the camera ready as we enter the airfield. We are walking on the tarmac. Everywhere you look are aircraft. The first thing we see is a C-130. Rob used to work on those. Camera clicking, I take pictures of birds and Rob and Andrea. We see and F-4 Phantom, remade into a civilian bird. Rob talks to the young man. He worked on those in Vietnam. There are fighter jets, helicopters, radar planes and way out on the tarmac are the Blue Angels. Wow! They are lined up perfectly with numbers on their tails. They deep blue with yellow trim. It's exciting to see them up this close. There is a party atmosphere on the base. Rides and expensive food and drinks are available.

We see a type of bungee jumper off to one side. For a“mere” $8 you can hook a belt around your waist and thighs and jump and spin to your heart's content. We sprung for Andrea to do it. Rob said he would pay double or more if I would do it! I don't think so! Can you imagine my big behind squished into those things? EEEEEWWWW! Don't even try to imagine. It would be gross to say the least.

We stop to see the police, highway patrol, sheriff and fire department exhibits and Andrea climbs around inside a fire truck. He smile is so beautiful. I have taken tons of pictures. She may end up being a model one day – she's so photogenic. Rob tries to con me into a picture. I let him take one. I don't like having my picture taken.

Finally, we sit on the weeds near the fence that keeps watchers off the runway. There are planes in the air. First we see a man doing acrobatics on a bi-plane. It was so cool. Even overcast skies couldn't ruin the fun. Next came a series of planes doing tricks, barrel rolls, flying upside down and suddenly: BOOM!!! There is a fireball and smoke. I must have jumped a foot in the air. It was amazing and I missed the shot. What a bummer. We enjoyed as the entertainment continued. I snapped what I could, but overcast skies made the shots very bland and gray. And then again . . . KABOOOOM!! This time it was a whole row of fireballs. I had the camera at the ready and got the shot. Next thing I see on the display - - disc error! I can't believe it. All my shots are in the nether lands. Somehow I'm going to try to rescue them when I get home. I am bummed. Andrea and I wandered off to get a disposable camera to get a few shots. I may end up scanning the stuff from the program. The silly camera was so expensive, but we were right in the middle of it all.

We managed to ease our way up to the fence just in time to hear the announcement that the crew chiefs were on their way to prepare the jets for take-off. Six vans headed across the field and backed up in formation behind the jets. There are three men assigned to each plane. So spiffy! The tops open up and there is a collective sigh as the men begin their preparations. People are coming closer to the fence. We are right up front. We can hear the huge noise of a jet about to take off. Rob says, “It's a C-130 taking off.” The Blue Angels have a C-130 they call Fat Albert that brings their supplies to the air shows. “Watch this!” Robert says. “They are going to do a short runway take-off. They have jets on the side for boosters.” Sure enough, the blue and yellow behemoth rolls down the runway and takes straight off into the air! Wow! That's all I can say. There was blue flame shooting out the side of the plane. After a bit, they come back down again and a crew member comes up through the top with an American Flag. The crowd cheers and applauds. This is wonderful!

We are still waiting for the birds to take off. It was supposed to go at 2:00 pm. The pilots are up front and ready, but it's not happening. The ceiling has dropped to 750 feet – too dangerous for these men to do specialty stunt flying. It's disappointing, but we have seen so much cool stuff that the trip here was worth it. Even getting up early was worth it. I sure hope some of my pictures turn out.