air show

We (and about 12 bajillion other people) went to the air show on Sunday. Logan loves real planes, toy planes, books about planes, pretending he's a plane... You get the picture. In past years we've gone to a park near the airport and watched a few planes while the kids played on the playground. No crowds and free seemed the way to go. This year we decided to face the crowds so Logan could get close to the planes displayed on the ground. We are brilliant! Not.


First, it took us 45 minutes to park. Approximately 5 minutes of that time we could actually see the stunt plane that was performing. We then walked a half mile to the gates where we waited another 10 minutes to get in. We already had tickets, that's just how many people were there. We then walked around for about 5 minutes before both kids decided they had to pee. We made our way to the row of Port-a-potties (EEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!) where there were AT LEAST 20 people lined up in front of each. We waited over 30 minutes in line to pee (and yes, I used one because I figured I wasn't going to wait again!!!!)


We did tour several planes and helicopters and got up close to lots of military jets. The lines were insane. I think it took more than 20 minutes just to walk through a FedEx cargo jet. We were inside the dark, windowless plane with zillions of other people that entire time because they were giving out stickers and wing pins at the exit end. It was nuts!

Logan loved the planes on the ground and in the air. We bought him a toy Blue Angels plane and he entertained the people around us flying it around doing all kinds of stunts. He LOVED the actual Blue Angels demonstration and wanted us to buy him five more toy planes. No. Watching him play with his toy planes at home and watching the hilarious stunts he made up almost made the whole dreadful experience worthwhile. Almost.

Kaylin hated pretty much the entire thing. The planes were too loud, the (incredibly stupid) jet-powered truck was too smelly, there were WAY too many people waiting in yet another line to tour yet another boring plane. It wasn't fun. She was a REALLY good sport about it. I was impressed.

Somehow, we got lucky and it only took about 10 minutes to leave. The Blue Angels were the grand finale so EVERYONE left at the same time. Other than more Port-a-potties, I don't know how they could make this event better. I mean, except for stupid Jet Truck the acts were fantastic. It was just the HUGE number of people in a small area, all fighting to do the same things at the same time that made it miserable. Perhaps if parking hadn't been such a pain, the crazy lines right after entering wouldn't have bothered us so much.