Homecoming

One of the great things about living in Neptune Beach is that it has a small-town atmosphere. Today is the annual homecoming parade for our local high school, and it always shuts down the southbound lanes of our main north-south corridor. Not to mention that it's a nice relief from the leak in my main water line that's being fixed!

Too lazy to walk down the street...

This is the final day of the 2009 Sea & Sky Spectacular, but I'm too lazy to walk down the street to the beach to see it. Maybe it's because I spent a couple of hours down there Friday, talking to others from the 'hood and shooting footage of the rehearsal show. But because my house is still in the flight line for the Blue Angels, I can still get some good video from my own front yard. To wit, this shot of the four planes in the "diamond" flying over the house. No naptime this afternoon!

How do the organizers of this event always seem to pick a weekend with perfect weather for it? You couldn't ask for a nicer day today for an air show. Clear blue skies, temps in the low 80s, cool breeze coming off the ocean. Even though I'm about a mile out of the main show area, when the show consists of airplanes, there's always a good amount of spillover. I'll get back to my beach walking tomorrow when the crowds have gone home and it's just us locals again.

Dawn in the hood

A beautiful orange-and-blue sky greets us this morning. It's a great day for an air show! I have another commitment this morning, but will be back out on the beach this afternoon to see the sights.

We Got Angels!

Today is the second day of practice for the participants in this weekend's Sea and Sky Spectacular. A chilly wind from the north-northeast keeps us cool in the afternoon sun as we watch the spectacle. Flocks of pelicans continue flying by as if nothing out of the ordinary is happening. Seagulls make little headway against the wind.

We watch some of the stunt flyers making curlicues of smoke in the sky. Several people have cameras and the crowd grows. Kids on bicycles. Fathers pushing strollers. Neighbors who have never really spoken to each other before this. Retirees who are likely veterans themselves.

Next is a flyby and some fancy maneuvers by "Fat Albert", the C-130 that transports the crew and gear for the Blue Angels. It finally heads back toward Mayport.

The crowd grows anxious, anticipating the stars of the event. We're looking all around for any telltale signs of the Blue Angels. Finally, someone spies a group of planes in the distant mist over the ocean to the north. The diamond grows larger before passing by us with a deafening shriek. There's no other sound in the world like the scream of an F/A-18 Hornet, and six of them together are even more impressive. The Angels do not disappoint.

Yee-hah! It's going to be a great airshow this weekend.

Video of Fat Albert

Here's video of Fat Albert, the C-130T Hercules that transports the Blue Angels' support crew and supplies. Its all-Marine crew includes 3 officers and 5 enlisted Marines.

Video of stunt plane

Here's the stunt plane executing some maneuvers in front of us.

But Where Are the Angels? Ahhh, THERE they are!

Temperatures in the 70s have given us perfect walking weather. A crowd is gathered on the boardwalk over the dunes to catch a glimpse of the Blue Angels as they practice for this weekend's air show, but the only signs of them are a few jet tracks high in the cirrus clouds.

The water has grown cooler, as evidenced by the surfers all in wetsuits today. A strong north wind kicks up white caps on the ocean and blows salt air into my nose and lungs. That salt air is the reason we moved to the beach, when I was only seven years old. We'd lived a block off the river in town, our yard covered in oak trees dripping with Spanish moss. But eight hospitalizations for asthma over a period of three years convinced my parents that the asthma specialist wasn't kidding when he said, "You can move to the beach, or kiss her goodbye." And, 45 years later, I'm still here...or perhaps more accurately, here I am again. Living in other places has convinced me that I'm a beach girl at heart.

Breathing in the healing salt air, I pass only a few other walkers out on this cool, windy day. The tide is in so there's only a narrow strip of sand on which to walk. But that's enough. Hearty sandpipers forage along the water's edge for food. A flock of pelicans dives for fish, then floats en masse toward the outer edge of the breakers. An osprey dives almost vertically, emerging with a fish in its talons and flying across the dunes to enjoy its lunch.

A container ship heads out to sea, but few other boats are out due to the choppy conditions. I finish my walk and head back up the street to the house. It's only after arriving home that I hear the unmistakable roar of F/A-18s and realize that the Blue Angels have begun today's practice. Ah, how I love that sound of freedom!