Monday, June 11, 2007

Star Spangled Sweat








This past weekend was the annual Star Spangled Salute on base. Usually it's held as close to July 4th as possible, but this year was a full month early.

They had all of the usual vendors and kids activities - bounce houses, petting zoo, mini airplane rides. The big draw though was the Blue Angels . They are awesome so it was packed. The airshow officially started at noon, but the previous two days the Blue Angels had been practicing around 3-ish, so we (correctly!) figured that they'd perform around that time.

Sidenote: this spring in OK has been unseasonably cool and rainy. Almost strangely so, in fact. And I, being the cynic that I am, have been saying to anyone (Bobby) who complained about the rainy, cool weather, that as soon as it ended that it would be a blazing furnace here.

We got to the base a little before 2 pm and sure enough, the Blue Angels flew at a little after 3 pm. In just that time, we were beet red, dripping with sweat and downing water like it was going out of style. As soon as they were finished, we and several hundred others left. Walking back to the van, we saw on a huge digital marquis that it was 97 degrees. Ugh.

Anyway, after a couple of hours (while Emily napped) we met up with the in-laws and returned to see Tops in Blue and some country singer named Mark Chesnutt sing and then the fireworks show.

They were running way late and a storm blew in that went just east of us. We actually felt a couple of sprinkles and then it cooled down quickly. I snapped pictures of the kids and one of those artists who draw in time to music and a couple of the clouds too while we waited. It ended up being a lovely evening. We didn't leave until 11:15 and I think we got home just before midnight. A long full day in OKC.


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you for the description of the Base programs. We were in town, with Opa's Dad, we decided not to go. The heat would have been too much for him. Your descriptions were really good and I was able to enjoy your experience through your pictures and narrative. Good job and nice pictures!

sara said...

everyone looks super happy!!! and those sky pics are beautiful!!! when are we getting together next??