In April I bought tickets for the Great Hunter, me, my son, daughter-in-law and grandson for the Spirit of St. Louis Air Show. I haven’t been to an airshow in probably more than ten years and  I was really looking forward to it as just another way our world is getting back to normal. Its poignant to look back and realize how much we took for granted our ability to go and do and see and be together. None of us ever imagined all that could be taken away.  I am so thankful that is mostly behind us now.

When I think of June, I think of it as just the beginning of summer and the weather being pleasant enough to be able to enjoy extended periods of time outside. I didn’t imagine last April when I bought the tickets that this year, in the middle of June, we would be sweltering in 100° heat!

The air show was performed both Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday, attendees were only allowed to bring one “under one liter sealed” bottle of water per person into the show since they were providing water refilling stations and concessions. They hadn’t anticipated the extreme temperature on Saturday and their refilling stations running dry. So on Sunday, we were able to bring in as much water as we wanted. It was a five-hour performance and we definitely needed every ounce of water we brought as well as about a dozen extra bottles we bought plus copious amounts of sunscreen.

I’ve always loved photography ever since I was a young girl and had my first little box camera that took tiny little pictures. I’ve purchased my first Minolta in 1979 and over the years, I’ve bought others. The last camera I bought was a Canon EOS 50D that takes awesome photos.  I’ve gotten lazy of time and cell phone cameras now take great pictures so I often don’t take my “big” camera with me unless I want speed or telephoto. And at the airshow I definitely needed both.

Here are a few of the highlights from the afternoon:

Lockheed Martin F35-A Lightning

And of course, those Angels that stole the show, the US Navy’s Blue Angels. They made all the waiting and heat and noise (and boy, were those big birds loud!) worth it. It was an absolutely awesome, breathtaking show.

When the show ended, we had a long, hot walk back to our car and apparently we looked so bedraggled, a nice woman driving a cart offered us a ride to our car. That was a life-saver!