Luke Days

Jed, Tagg & I went to Luke Days, the air show they have every once in a while at Luke Air Force Base, just a few miles away from our house.

We parked at their designated parking lot and hopped on one of the school buses they were using as shuttles to get to the actual base. Ah, sticky green (or brown :), seat belt-less seats and skinny aisles... school buses are the best! ;)
Now, I had read online that every year about 100,000 people come to Luke Days each of the two days it's held. So I expected some big, extravagant thing--but when we got there, there were about 5 Air Force planes sitting on the tarmac and everybody was either lounging in the shade of a plane...

or waiting in the immensely long line to actually walk through one of the planes (the plane you could walk through is in the picture above)
Tagg looked stinkin CUTE in the hat we put him in--he actually kept it on for part of the time, too!

The planes did look really cool... I was just expecting some big to-do and it turned out to be quite simple. I was suprised... and pretty sure I wouldn't spend $10 on it again :)

We splurged on it cuz we thought Tagg would have the greatest time ever--he had been really into planes, gasping and pointing every time one flew over our house (which is all the time, since we live near both a municipal and a major airport). Well, he had a decent time at the beginning... I don't think he quite got it that these huge things sitting around are the same as the little things flying around in the sky, but oh well! He did really enjoy the picture of a plane they had up next to one of the real deals :)
I definitely had a blast, and seriously enjoyed finding out that helicopters can do stunts the way airplanes do! They can turn upside-down and everything! Amazing!

Then the Thunderbirds showed up, and it was well worth the wait. They defied death as they zoomed around above us, so close that if one little thing went wrong, they would all inevitably collide and we would all inevitably be assaulted with hurtling pieces of stunt planes gone wrong... Well, nothing did go wrong... unless you happened to be a 16-month-old with tender ears and no way to be forewarned that sometimes these awesome planes get REALLY LOUD... The show had been pretty darn quiet up until one of the planes turned the volume up--way up--as he went past. We didn't brace ourselves at all because it had been so tame beforehand, and it was one of those booms that you can feel in your core. Tagg started crying immediately, and although before he had been looking up at the planes in amusement, from that point on, he stared straight ahead with a scowl on his face. We took our cue and headed for the bus.
All in all, it was a great experience, and I'm so glad we all went together! It was incredible to see these speeding planes hurtle towards each other and then at the literal last second each flip onto its side for the pass. Nuts! I can't imagine the kind of guts it would take to try that kind of move for the very first time. Wow.