We started out by meeting Kevin, Dawn and William to go to the "Wings Over Houston" airshow. It was at Ellington Field, a base that houses a lot of NASA facilities and aircraft. One of the static displays Sidney got to go inside was the actual 747 built to carry the space shuttle. We also saw several other displays (here, Sidney is standing in front of a B-52, on which the tires were taller than she is) and some great demonstrations.
Featured demonstrations this year were the "Tora! Tora! Tora!" re-enactment by the Commemorative Air Force, a Vietnam air power demonstration, and several acrobatic flyers.
There were also current military jet presentations, like the F-16 Falcon and the F-18 Hornet. Sidney and William were quite impressed with the loud sound that these two jets made. The humidity was also high enough that it created some spectacular effects in high-g turns and high-speed passes.
The final demonstration of the day was the Air Force Precision Flying Team - Thunderbirds! Sidney got an autograph from one of the pilots, and (after a little bit of a wait) they put on quite a show.
The jets look fantastic in their red-white and blue paint with the "thunderbird" silhouette painted underneath. It is very impressive seeing not only the high-speed runs, but the precision with which the various formations are flown. Just look at how close these two were flying to each other!
We left the airshow and headed down to the Bolivar peninsula to Dawn's beach house, Luna Bella. It was one of only a handful to survive Hurricane Ike two years ago, and they have done a lot of work to get it back in beautiful shape. Kevin liked it so much that he also bought a beach house there - Kay Caye, and Dawn's parents had one built next door named Shell Station.
The weather was great, so Sidney and William spent much of Sunday morning playing on the beach. We then came in and cleaned up for a wonderful lunch with Dawn's parents before heading back home. We would have liked to spend more time, but Sidney had homework.
On the way back, we were able to see some of our favorite animals - pelicans and dolphins. Sidney and William also enjoyed feeding the seagulls from the back of the ferry.
Kimber is in Norway right now and will return on Friday. She is going to try to bring some reindeer sausage home to keep Sidney from having reindeer withdrawal. We will be happy to have her home, and will (hopefully) have almost everything done in the house before her return!
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