It was "Fleet Week" last week here in the Bay area. It is a week when the bay area celebrates the armed services. Big ships come in to port for a parade, lots of troops are around for the festivities and the Blue Angels are in town. For the better part of the week, we were teased by being able to hear the jets practicing their routines. Every afternoon, we could hear the engines roar - - but no visuals. This made the boys nuts. They would go running out of the house, searching skyward - - but no joy. I tried to explain the speed of sound versus the speed of jets, but to no avail. Finally on Friday afternoon, we caught a brief glimpse of them when I went to pick the guys up from school. We now had no choice but to go and see them.
Sunday afternoon we hoofed it down to Pier 39. Getting to Pier 39 isn't exactly a straight shot from where we live. I guess we could have driven, but we figured that several thousand of our closest friends would also be driving. We were right. We took the Muni instead - - with several thousand of our closest public-transportation-using-friends! We headed downtown and then walked the rest of the way. Somehow, walking there looking for planes was exciting and the walk didn't seem as long. The walk back was terminal. We were re-thinking the whole be-green-be-smart-take-the-muni plan.
It was just plain exciting to watch the Blue Angels. It was even better because the boys had never seen them. They remained riveted for the entire hour. Plus it was an incredible view. Many times they would zorch right over our heads close enough that you could see the pilot with the naked eye. With binoculars, it was even more amazing (that is if you could follow them fast enough!) The Angels put on a really great show, and it was moving watching them come in over the low hills behind Alcatraz. I swear that the strains of the Battle Hymn of the Republic could be heard as they took their final turn towards the city. I am a patriot sap.
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