Arlington Fly-In

Last week I discovered there was an Air Show/Fly-in in the Seattle area.  I love Air Shows.  When I was a missionary in England, I had a dream to be up North in time for the Sunderland Air Show--watching planes fly in off the North Sea--but it didn't work out just quite right.  I actually was in Durham, not too far away when it happened, but I couldn't think of an excuse to legitimize the trip.  Oh well...

So when I found out about the Arlington Fly-in, I thought, "Shucks!  I've got a son.  He'll love it!  Let's go!"  I packed us a lunch and we headed out.

To be honest, it was a pretty small show.  Nearly all the planes on display were just little ones that people had flown in to get to the show.  Neat, but nothing special.  There were a few bigger ones around--like a B-25 bomber:

But mostly just little prop planes. 

The air show was still fun to watch tho.  The opening act was "The Flying Tenor", a man who sang the National Anthem whilst doing stunts in his little plane.  There were then several similar little stunt planes, a sail plane, and then two planes that flew together (a duet?).  They called themselves "Team Rocket," although I'm not sure whether they'd ever seen Pokemon.  Single stunt planes are cool to watch, but formation flying is definitely a-whole-nother world.  Sooooooo cool.  I wish there had been bigger groups, but I was happy with what I got.  The show ended with an "Alpha Jet" which, I think is a German plane, and anyway, it flew really fast.  Back and forth.  Several times.  We thought that was pretty cool too.

Carson had fun watching the planes, talking about their loud engines, and asking me lots of questions about things I didn't know anything about.  (I do really like planes.  But other than the P-51 Mustang and B-2 Stealth Bomber, I'm completely hopeless at names, dates, or details.)

One highlight of the afternoon was this little area with "flight simulation planes."  They were up on hydraulic stands and had a joystick which would actually move the wing flaps up and down as it turned the plane up and down and side to side.  I thought they were great, but the motion freaked Carson out a little.  He was happy to just sit and talk about the different dials on the instrument panels.

Cora, meanwhile, was busy entertaining the kids who were running the ride.

We did have a good time all around.  However, I realized on the way home that we went to the airshow for ME and not really for Carson.  (In fact, he was kinda grumpy in the car, and kept insisting that he "didn't have a fun time at the air show."  I was a little disheartened until he saw Austin and the first words out of his mouth were "We saw an Alpha Jet, Dad!")  If I'm honest, I think he was just as entertained--if not more so--by the Tractor-Tram that was pulling people around the airfield, or the Tesla car that parked next to us in the parking lot.  I should have guessed as much.  Carson is into wheeled-craft at this point in his life.  He is very appropriately named. 

We have a 3rd story corner apartment in Seattle, and there are several large windows overlooking the intersection below.  Carson loves to sit on the back of the couch and watch the cars out the window.  He has a little book we picked up in China with car brands and logos in it, so he even knows the names of most of the cars that he sees.  He'll just sit there, and you'll hear him:  "Honda...Audi...BMW! (he loves BMWs)...Chevy....Mercedes Benz....Mazda...Convertible (he calls all Fords convertibles for some reason)...Volvo...Mini...etc etc etc...  The kid is into cars.

So at the end of the day, we both got what we wanted, and had a nice adventure.

Oh, as an endnote, and completely unrelated to the above posting, if Austin does get a job in Seattle after he graduates next year, I will not live north of the city.  For at least the 40 miles that I was on the Interstate heading back into Seattle that evening, the entire freeway going the other direction, I am not kidding you, was completely bumper to bumper with cars.  It was ridiculous.  And I'm sure it's like that on all sides.  If we live here, I would rather live in a small apartment downtown than subject my husband to that kind of commute every day.  It's completely ridiculous!  I mean, I know people do that.  (Clearly, people do that, or there wouldn't have been thousands of cars on the freeway.)  And I know it's considered a pretty normal way of life.  But, wow.  I just can't imagine it.  I hope that doesn't sound snobbish of me.  Perhaps a bit naive, anyway?  Well, hopefully, one of these days, we can finagle a way to get ourselves back into a nice, quiet little place in the mountains or something.  (La Grande, OR!)  But then, isn't that everyone's dream in one way or another?