Sunday, September 27, 2009

Taking one for the team

The Redding Air Show has come and gone. Not without a lot of noise. Both by the kids and the planes in the show. Other people, of course, made noise as well. I went, I saw, I baked in the shade of my large umbrella/parasol, I witnessed countless fashion violations, I ate and drank expensive Air Show fare, I breathed in the essence that is the Redding Air Show.

The first test of the day was just getting there. We live about 3 1/2 miles from the airport. We made it within about a mile and that is when the pace slowed to a crawl. The next 75 minutes was spent going the last mile. I jokingly raced a couple that had just parked. They decided they would walk. They were out of sight in about 10 minutes. I never saw them again. I think that they won the race, such as it was.

Test the second; find a relatively cool place to "park it" for the duration. I figured, rather than have a tired cranky dad following you around day, why not have a happy centrally located dad that you could just check in with every now and then. I took my chair. I took my parasol. I took my good intentions. I took a very large bottle of water in with me.

The third test is the lucky one, right? Find a booth that every one agrees on to get food. I don't know why I wanted to do it that way, it just seemed, the not so easy thing to do. Well, 2 out of 3 can't be all bad. Fox, as he is now known, did not want to eat anything. Just water, cold water. So, 2 burgers, 2 sodas and 3 waters later we were ready to begin enjoying the show.

From my centrally located personage, I was able see the show, hear the announcer and, more or less, keep tabs on the kids. I saw a few friends, as did the kids.

The 4Th challenge came when I started to bring up leaving. I started by reminding the kids how long it took us to get here. Then I told them that more people had shown up since we had arrived. Then I told them that if we waited for the very last second to leave, we would be behind even more people on the way out. They understood where I was directing this conversation. I had made my point. We just needed a few good pictures of the Blue Angels and we were outta there!

Next test; Getting souvenirs on the way out. Remember, we were leaving before all the other people. Well, getting souvenirs was not as quickly done as one might think. With a 5 minute limit the hunting for the souvenir began. 10 minutes later... I was getting impatient. People were seeing our exit strategy and following suit, ahead of us. We got it!

Sweet, sweet exit is in sight!

Dad! Dad! There is another booth that I want to get a souvenir from. You have got to be kidding! Look how far we are behind now! Come on! Lets get out of here!

DAAADDDDDD! Just 1 more minute! O.K, 2 minutes. MOVE, MOVE MOVE!!

Well 2 minutes turned into 5, then 7. Still no closer to a choice.

Next challenge; Actually leaving. We managed to leave and follow droves of people to the truck. I thought that I was a genius for using the airport parking lot and saving a whole lot of walking in the dirt.

Getting home took about 25 minutes total.

Then the next round of tests. Who had the cameras?

I'll spare you the details, but I left both cameras at the air show. Andrea and I made our way back, retraced our steps and luckily found them.

That's how I took one for the team, kind of.

1 comment:

terreal said...

Way to go, mom and dad! Taking one 9or more) for the team!!