The Blue Angels Rise Again (July 2024)

 

One of the perks of living near a small airport growing up was waving to the occasional plane and helicopter that flew over the house. Our children live one hilltop away from where I ran around and waved at planes, and they do the same thing now! Another perk, more impressive than the occasional helicopter overhead, was the air show that the U.S. Navy Blue Angels performed every few years. 

It had been quite some time since they'd come to our little airport, and they haven't come since, but the summer of 2024 brought magic to Mount Hunger.  The roads near the airport are always lined with cars full of people who park to watch the show for free, but when we heard them overhead, we ran to the top of Mount Hunger for a great view with no competition. (Debbie-- I'm sorry we didn't know ahead of time! If this happens again, you should bring the children!) We were so transfixed that I even forgot to get my mother, who was gardening at the time, unaware that the view a short distance up the hill was worth a break from gardening. (I drove down to grab her for the last, little bit.)

They performed their impressive maneuvers right over the airport, but then they'd zoom over our field to regroup and head back.  The aerial feats were an incredible sight. Grace and beauty in hunks of metal overhead.  What an interesting and contradictory creature man is.

Then they landed, we walked home, and Susannah left for work, which was an ordinary ending to an extraordinary afternoon.