Miramar Airshow 2008

This weekend is the Miramar Airshow, located just outside of San Diego. We haven't been able to hit this air show the last couple of years because our church's Mens Retreat always fell on the same weekend, but this year, due to building a building soon, we didn't have a retreat, therefore the air show event has literally been on our calendar since the beginning of the year.

We arrived midday and had a long wait from getting off the freeway to where it was they directed us to park. And then there was a bit of a walk, then a security checkpoint, and then a bus ride to the front line. Once inside the gate to the flight deck, we got the girls some ear plugs (they give them free to kids at this air show!) and off we went in search of the perfect spot. It took a while to find that spot. This air show offers a lot of the front flight deck to corporate sponsors, etc. Hannah had fun. She cracked me up when the time came for The Blue Angels to fly. She made her way through a crowd of about seven or eight people thick to the very front and had a front row spot against the railing. Of course, it's become air show tradition to get the girls a little plane toy, and Hannah chose a Blue Angel, and Daddy chose a really cool F-22 Raptor that actually lights up and makes noise for Rachel. Both very cool!

Not only does he have Rachel on his shoulders, but he's holding Hannah up with one arm too! She thought that was pretty cool.

After the afternoon flight show was over, we toured some of the grounded planes. This particular plane, a B52 bomber, was the type of plane that Grandpa Steven loaded bombs onto during the Vietnam War. You were able to walk underneath the bomber and actually see where the bombs go! Pretty interesting.Grandpa Steve loaded bombs on this plane during Vietnam.Sitting inside a very large cargo plane.Soon, we were done exploring and it was time to head back to the buses back to where we'd parked. However, the lines for the buses were extremely long and Steven thought we could walk back to our car faster than standing in line for a bus. So we walked. We walked about a mile and a half I think. For the most part, Hannah was a trooper and did relatively well with walking that far after having stood on her feet for a few hours. However, once in the car, we all breathed a sigh of relief. LOL. After making our way off the military base, we had a nice dinner and put the girls into their jammies and they both soon fell asleep!