Snowbirds and Blue Angels

The Canadian Snowbirds

I enjoyed the airshow at the ShrinersFest this year, but it was a little too strung out. The show was supposed to start at 12:40, but it was close to 1:00 before we saw the first plane. The first "act", the Canadian Snowbirds, were pretty cool, as were the Blue Angels ... but the Blue Angels didn't start flying until around 3:30. The announcer rarely told us where to look for the next fly-over, so the crowd spent a lot of time just looking up, waiting for something to happen ... and missing photo opportunities because you never knew which direction to focus on.

We sat in the sun, basting in our own sweat for four hours. The lines at every single food booth were so long it was difficult to find the end of them. I was starving, so I stood in line for over thirty minutes to buy a hot dog ... and it wasn't even grilled ... it was boiled. Yum! Because the lines for all the food booths were so long, we ended up getting free water from the medical tent. It wasn't very cold, but it was wet and we needed the hydration.

The air show is really the big draw for the ShrinersFest, so I understand their reasons for making it last as long as they can  (the longer the air show lasts, the longer people are there spending money) ... but geez ... we were sick of being there long before the Blue Angels arrived. They need to make the show more compact. There were long gaps between fly-overs. It took so long it was boring! If we weren't waiting for the Blue Angels, we would have left a lot sooner. Even so, we did leave before the Blue Angels were done. We were hot, sweaty, hungry, thirsty, and sunburned. Four hours is a long time to sit in the sun to waiting for a plane to fly by ... not even the Blue Angels could keep us there any longer.

But, when the planes were flying, it was pretty cool. Below are a few (very short) clips of the air show: