July 4th : The Thunderbird Show.
Bear with me, I still haven’t caught up with all the pending posts from this summer. I am almost there, a few more and then I will be done with summer and start with all things fall hopefully!🤪
Coming back to this post, this year on 4th of July weekend, we went to the Thunderbird show held at Gig Harbor to watch some of the US military and historic planes take over the clear blue summer skies.
I was excited at the thought of it and at the same moment I felt ashamed. Ashamed, because every alternate year since 1996 Bangalore has been hosting one of the most spectacular airshows in Asia called the Aero India show and despite spending good 10 years in Bangalore,the Thunderbird show was going to be my air show ever.
Aero India Show (Source: Google)
Until recently I wasn’t even aware that Aero Show, is the largest public air show in Asia, also serving as platform for aviation exhibition for aerospace and defence industries.
That reminds me of the Republic Day parade held at Rajapat, New Delhi every year on the 26th of January. I used to it watch it on Doordarshan and now we watch it on Youtube🤪 !
The girls and I enjoy watching the dances and all those the interesting tableaus from various states, and when in the end the Indian air force takes over the sky, that part is my favorite bit of the entire parade!
Indian Airforce planes taking over the skies Source: Google
A picture can speak a thousand words, and for me this picture here makes me very happy 😃. So when S booked the tickets for the Thunderbird show, I expected a spectacular air show with lots of American Flag colors , if nothing, I anticipated it to be, at the least, as amazing as the Bangalore Aero show!
He paid a little extra and booked the front row parking spot, which gave us an unhindered view of the whole show!
A very wise decision indeed, the highlights of the show was watching the planes up and close on the runway .
Ready for 4th of July !
We left for the show right after a heavy brunch , It was a typical July summer day in Seattle, we reached the venue right on time and with the help of volunteers parked our van in the front row of the north lot.
The crowd had started to trickle in, as we got out our beach chairs,hats and sunglasses, my eyes wandered to the row right behind us.
Many got their tents and picnic mat set up in front of their car trunks, some even brought out their portable barbeque! A group got out their bluetooth speakers and as I watching they broke in to a dance routine, what fun🤩.
Noise cancelling headphones on
I had snacks and a mini lunch packed for the girls, but nothing to the tune of what I was observing around me! People drove here for a air show picnic! Excited chatter and music filled the parking lot as people got settled for the air show!
It was finally time for the show to begin, we tuned to the mentioned radio fm frequency and got ready for an hour of amazing air show! Yay 🎉
As the first plane made its debut on the runway, the crowd went crazy, and claps and excited screams were heard from all directions! We joined in too.
Ready for some fun
Thereafter for 15 minutes we watched the smaller planes taking the flight and performing stunts midair. They did a great job at it.
The girls were loving it, everyone was high on energy ,cheering, clapping, as they got ready for more!
But soon after smaller planes left the runway all the excitement fizzled out, as we went into a 15 minute break. I mean the show had just started 😲.
There was nothing happening on the runway or in the air , everyone kept looking up waiting for something to fly by , but nope nothing did!
Waiting for the next plane
The girls lost all interest, Ms. V went back in to the van to read her kindle and Ms. N took out her drawing book and crayons.
Finally after what seemed like forever the jets came out and boy did they put on a show! But again this lasted for under 15 minutes.
Except an occasional happy cheer the crowd fell quite and I could tell that most were disappointed just like us! We would get a show for couple of minutes and then everything would silent.
The whole idea of this shows is the adrenaline rush and the feeling of patriotism you get as you watch planes go up one after the other, none of the planes even had the American flag attached to its tail.
I mean you see a lot of that in the movies, a huge flag swaying in the air, and come on it was the 4th of July! Was I being too flimy ? 🤪
Smoke from the truck fitted with jet engine
The best part of the show apart from our spot was the last 10 minutes where a truck fitted with jet engine raced with a plane and there was display of smoke and speed. Now that’s what I was talking about, engaging with the audience, giving us something to cheer about!
I wasn’t even inspired to take many pictures and that says a lot about the air show ! Honestly, none of us enjoyed it much. Unless your kids are crazy mad about planes, this isn’t worth your time. We left for home a little after 4pm disappointed and underwhelmed with the whole show.
This was my first experience of an air show held here in America, and I will say this India’s air shows rock! Have you been to one here in States? Was it any better than my experience?
“If life were predictable it would cease to be life, and be without flavor.” – Eleanor Roosevelt