Tuesday, November 02, 2010

Watching Da Planes

Around the beginning of October, we decided we needed a little family getaway.  We left our house on a Sunday morning and headed up to Salinas.  Not really a vacation spot, but we decided to go to the air show up there at the local airport.  We arrived shortly after the show itself started, but the police had lots of streets blocked off and we got stuck in a NIGHTMARE of traffic.  By nightmare I mean being directed to dead ends and sitting in a not-moving car with a screaming toddler, while watching the F18's flying by and realizing we were missing some of the best parts of the show.  We almost abandoned ship a few times, but since we'd already paid for our tickets, we stuck it out and after literally an HOUR in traffic, we finally arrived - albeit ready to write a letter to the city and complain about how stupid their traffic directors were.
We weren't sure how Adam would do since air shows are really loud - but he loves planes and at first sight of a small plane doing tricks, he was shouting "AIRPLANE!  AIRPLANE!"  and super excited. 



  
  At one point we were watching the Thunderbirds fly in formation.... which was amazing!



(love this picture!)

(short video of them flying)
Then one plane did a surprise fly by which was really close and really loud and the whole audience was shouting "WHOA!" because it scared the crap out of all of us - nobody saw it coming.  Adam FREAKED.  I couldn't even hear him crying, and I was holding him - it was that loud! 
He pretty much remained crumbled in my arms after that until we decided to high tail it outta there.  Where we encountered another traffic debacle as they had everyone re-routed to drive through residential streets with stop signs as they left the show.  Really dumb.  Nothing like being stuck in traffic and having to drive veeeeery slowly through a neighborhood where everyone has bars on the windows and security doors.  I even saw an entire front porch caged in.  Oh my. 
All in all, a cool show - but the traffic issues sort of put a damper on the whole thing.  

1 comment:

2boymommy said...

you were so close to me! oh and my husband is a cop (not in salinas) and won't let me go there at all. good thing you came out alive!