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• A day for Blue Angels

  2007-10-08 1:00AM / 標準BLOG / San Francisco / 會員可以看
  10個評論

  Fleet Week's happening again in San Francisco. The main event for me is watching the Blue Angels doing their thing over the Bay.
  
  

  Blue Angels coming over the mountain from Travis Air Force Base.
  
  
  
  Managed to snap a fly-by. Not an easy task with the sun shining into my face, the brisk wind blowing my hair into my eyes, trying to anticipate where the plane will be when my slow camera finally opens its shutters, and the ear-splitting effect from the jet engines.
  
  
  
  Flying in the diamond pattern.
  
  
  
  Five of six jets at the apex of the loop they were shaping.
  
  
  
  Final fly-by over the Golden Gate Bridge
  
  
  
  Final fly-by in front of Alcatraz Island.
  
  
  
  Final fly-by, exit stage right. That's Pier 39 down below.
  
  

  
  

  The fun thing about watching the Blue Angels perform is that the planes seemed to sneak up behind you. As you're focused on the aerobatics in front, you don't know when the other plane(s) will approach from behind. And your ears would receive a shock as well, if you happen to be atop a hill directly in the path of the approaching plane(s) like I was. SF was really like the playground for these six flyers.
  
  

  I've watched the Blue Angels perform numerous times over a couple of venues in the Bay Area. The first few times were at Mountain View's Moffet Field during 4th of July weekends. That stage is significantly smaller than flying over the Golden Gate but one gets to view from a respectable distance the Boeing F/A-18 Hornets on the tarmac before they go into action.
  
  Even after seeing the Blue Angels doing their thing so many times before, the exhilaration and excitement still creep into me when I see them in action. Unfortunately, my snapshots obviously can't convey any of that to you. It's one of those events where seeing it live in person, hearing it live in person can be the only way to enjoy their spectacular performance.
  
  Because we arrived in SF so late into the air show portion of the day, we double-parked the car (like most people) at the top of one of the many hills in SF (I was somewhere on Russian Hill). I had a 180-degree view, save for a tree or chimney, of the Golden Gate to Treasure Island. The wind was a bit chilly and whipped me around. Luckily I'm usually prepared for SF weather and brought a warm jacket and wore long pants.
  
  When I finally got settled, the Team Oracle Challenger plane was in the middle of its aerial demonstration.
  

  Death spiral
  
  

  Then, some other plane showed its capabilities.
  

  Large plane practically hovering over Alcatraz Island.
  

  
  

  Large plane flying slowly overhead at conclusion of its demonstration.
  
  

  
  Apparently there were a slew of other planes performing. While we were snaking through SF Chinatown before finding our hill, we could hear the F-16 zooming overhead. I've seen it before but sure wish I'd caught it yesterday.
  
  After all that activity and then finding excellent parking with less than two hours left of feeding of parking meters, I got some yummy won-ton noodles at this place, which serves some of the finest, imo. For less than $3.00.
  
  I went down to my favorite video store and could only find one film to purchase, Eye in the Sky produced by Johnny To. They had a bunch of Korean mini-series and I couldn't remember the name of the one Butter glowed about in her last blog. There was Flashpoint but that didn't turn me on. I'll just have to go back in a month or two and get Blood Brothers.