The Blue Angels usually make an annual visit to Seattle for Seafair. It took us until 2019 to embrace this quintessential Seattle ‘thing’. However, once we found a place where we could watch without having to pay (because we are cheap) or to fight crowds and traffic (because we hate crowds and traffic), we were all in. Sort of.
This was our second event, so we now must have a routine. You can probably imagine. Retired(Engineer+Scientist)=SOP. On Thursday we go to Ruby Chow park, which is at the end of the Boeing Field runway. Why Thursday ? It’s practice day, so there will be at least three separate take-offs and landings. And despite what the news may say, some other people still have to work on Thursdays in Seattle. Why there ? Well, planes need a runway. Duh ? Besides, the name Ruby Chow is pretty intriguing isn’t it ? Click on the Ruby Chow link to learn about a very interesting women.
Shake, Rattle, and Roar
On take-off, the jets fly over very low and in formation. The thunder and shock wave is powerful. Everything shakes and all of the car alarms go off. I bet there is a chuckle in at least one cockpit. They fly over again later at full speed and in formation, leaving everyone in a cloud of smoke. At the end, each plane comes back overhead to land.
There are certainly much better places in Seattle to get an amazing photo of the Blue Angels. The internet is filled with images taken at Kerry Park of them passing the Space Needle in formation. They are great. I’m just not that invested in this to fight the traffic, parking, and hundreds of photographers fighting for position. Now if it were an incredible flock of eagles … or a rocket launch !
A Nerd Jamboree
Seattle has finally started to recover post-Covid, and most of the RV’s that were residing around the park have now been moved out. The only downside of the location is that this year a creative entrepreneur parked their Ice-Cream van there. I still can’t get that tune out of my head. The park is sprinkled with a collection of plane nerds and photographers. In between passes, we all compare camera gear and in some cases, share batteries. Of course always practicing safe sharing. There is usually a fair amount of lens envy going on. Molly is a closet ‘plane spotter’ so she is quite happy with a runway and her mobile app FlightRadar. This year, we also found a winery across the street for a mid-event adult beverage.
For the nerds among you … enjoy the following images. For those non-nerds … why did you even keep reading ? Because of the warm weather over a large tarmac runway, the heat haze obscures some of the images facing Mount Rainier. Just in case you were thinking that some of those fuzzy images below were because of the mid-event refreshment.
Your usual very informative and well written article!
Thank-you