Wings Over Houston

(Still updating)

Even though we can see the planes flying overhead, we decided that we just couldn't miss this year's Wings Over Houston airshow with the Blue Angels! The Blue Angels haven't flown in a Houston airshow since before 2001. Both girls love the airshow, they've been two or three times since we moved here. One of my favorite memories of Brenna is she was about 14 mos old holding onto those big ear protectors, big eyes and pointing at the planes. Cameron still hates the roar of the jet engines, but likes viewing the static displays.

We started with the most common aircraft seen over our house, not a commercial 737, but the NASA trainer T-38. You can see these planes flying overhead daily.

We walked around looking at various aircraft both on the ground and overhead. The P-38 from this years Heritage Flight is Glacier Gal, rescued in 1992 from the ice cap in Greenland where it crashed fifty years before.

We stood in line to tour the C-130 used by the 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron, more commonly called the "Hurricane Hunters." Wouldn't you know that the Tora Tora Tora WWII bombing demonstration started (and ended) while we were inside the plane. Brenna and I darted outside twice to get a look at the Mustangs and the pryotechnics.

This particular plane flew into Hurricane Katrina. They had a list of all the storms they've flown printed inside by the weather station.

Brenna bought a small metal airplane toy with her own money and could be found during various parts of the show mimicking some of the aerial maneuvers.

The Blue Angels were amazing. I would say this was the first time we saw them fly, except we saw them from the highway the previous weekend when we were in Ft. Worth!

After the Blue Angels flew, we figured we could sit in the parking lot trying to get out for an hour, or we could walk around for another hour. We were able to see the Blue Angels land and the pilots come over to the fence line to sign autographs.

The pilots stayed in one place and let the people crush each other trying to get an autograph. We only did a few, because it was a bit crazy. I wonder if the pilots think the hardest part of the job is signing autographs and meeting people. They were such professionals. Over and over guests said Thank You, and many had stories to tell them "My dad was a pilot for such and such unit..." If the guest was a veteran, the pilot always made it a point to tell them Thank you for your service.

We were pretty tired at the end of the day, but really happy. The United States has one amazing and impressive cadre of airmen/women and aircraft!