Since the beginning of time, Seattle has held SeaFair in early August. Many communities have parades often involving the mock-ferocious Seafair Pirates, men who get dressed up and do crazy pirate stuff, really a fund-raising organization. In the past, the hydroplane race on Lake Washington was the central event though interest in that event has waned in the 30 years we have lived there. The Navy Blue Angels appear doing their daredevil precision flying.
Today they practiced, the I-90 bridge is closed and people turn their eyes skywards. Dennis remembers seeing them fly by his building in Bellevue, making thunderous noise and missing the building by seeming inches. One summer, Dennis and Danny had gone on a boy scout campout which involved leaving our car at the Scout headquarters. In a fenced parking lot. Sunday afternoon, Dennis tries in vain to liberate the car. Meanwhile the Blue Angels screamed by in their tight formations looking like they are about to crash right into you. They didn't get the car that day.
Another time, we returned from a vacation over I-90. As we got closer, we could see the crowds and the planes swooping around "Wait a minute" I say "Is this Seafar weekend? Are those the Blue Angels?" Dennis grumbles and finds another route.
So we aren't quite in synch with the whole Seafair/Blue Angel thing. Today, I had a doctor appt downown. I realize that this is practice day and I can hear the screeching planes. As I waited in the waiting room on the 9th floor of a medical tower, I heard the familiar sound and took these pictures through the window of the Blue Angels flying over downtown Seattle.
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