The Blue Angels

Avatar for momtojoeybear
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
The Blue Angels
4
Sun, 04-30-2006 - 9:35am

Yesterday, Mom and I took Joey to see the Blue Angels at NAS Atlanta. The base will be closing soon and this is probably their last air show... Two years ago, we attempted to take Joey to see the Blues when they were here, but over 1 million people showed up and they closed the gates once the first 50,000 were in and so we made the best of a bad situation by finding a place at the end of the runway to sit and watch the part of the show that we could... Ever since then, Joey has been a huge fan of the Blues... there is a military channel special on them, describing everything they go through during the course of a year, the training involved, etc and it is one of his favorite shows...

So, yesterday at 7AM, we're leaving the house, determined to make it in... we even managed to get up there for the free parking and shuttle bus areas... Joey had a blast looking at all the different aircraft (but you know his first stop was the fire trucks from the neighboring Air Base) and talking with the soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen, many of whom have recently returned from duty overseas, either in Iraq or Afghanistan...

Honestly, it was a very long day... about noonish, we spread out our blanket and after lunch I laid down because it had been exhausting, but before we knew it, it was time for the Blue Angels to fly (3 pm) and even though it was cloudy early in the day, the weather improved so they could do an impressive show. Another thing that was very neat about it was that two of the six Blue Angel pilots are from metro Atlanta, actually grew up less than 2 miles from each other, but didn't know each other growing up... We waited afterwards for autographs and Joey did very well, getting 4 of the six pilots, plus the pilot for their C-130 "Fat Albert." Joey had a great day with his head up in the clouds... he managed to get back to the car yesterday before falling asleep on the way home, at 6 pm... FOR THE NIGHT...

This morning, he's arranging his two chairs as a pilot and co-pilot chair and is "flying" the different aircraft he saw yesterday, the helicopters and the planes, and don't forget the firetruck... he didn't... And in two weeks, the Thunderbirds will be flying a couple of hours south of here, so we're going to take him down for that too... Yesterday, the Air Force recruiter asked Joey what he was going to do when he got older... without blinking an eye he said, "fly for the Blue Angels AND the Thunderbirds." Good Goal to have... could get messy with the inter-service transfers that would be required, but why not aim high?

Hope all of you had a wonderful day yesterday...

Julie and Joey

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Registered: 07-08-2004
Sun, 04-30-2006 - 10:24am

Wow, that sounds amazing! Here in CT, we really hardly ever have any air shows. I would love to see one.


Joey is so adorable. I'm sure he's looking forward to the next show in a couple of weeks.




How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.
- Anne Frank

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-19-2003
Sun, 04-30-2006 - 1:14pm

Cool!


Karen ~ wildlucky4me ~

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Registered: 03-28-2003
Sun, 04-30-2006 - 9:18pm
Hey I was in Atlanta this weekend!! I went up for a girls weekend with a college friend and had an absolute blast. Her X took their girls to the show. She jokingly asked if I wanted to go but of course the LAST thing I want to be around is a place full of navy/marine pilots. It's bad enough that I have to be at airports!! Anyhoo, a gal pal weekend was just what I needed as I was heading into the angry, want to put my foot up his a$$ stage. I am MUCH better now. I am glad to hear that you had a good weekend!! The show IS awesome if you don't hate pilots LOL!
Avatar for momtojoeybear
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Registered: 03-26-2003
Sun, 04-30-2006 - 9:35pm

I suppose you're right... it would definitely be more of a drag if you couldn't stand pilots... they were everywhere... and some of them made it quite a scenic day yesterday...

I'm glad that you had a great weekend here in Atlanta... I was surprised that it turned out to be a nice one, despite the threat of rain the majority of the weekend. Joey was thrilled today, as we were driving around doing some errands, we saw the Blues doing one of their high aerial manuvers... we are about 30 miles away from NAS Atlanta so it was the last thing we expected but he thought it was super cool that he got to see the Blues again today!

*hugs*

Julie