Archive for the ‘blue angels’ tag
Seafair 2008 debrief: Jets, boats, and some snappy dressers
Kate put it so well:
It’s SeaFair again, when Seattle turns into a loud, warmongering, beer drinking, low-brow pit of red-neckery…..and you love it, because it is just one day a year.
Please join me at the marina for the air show, hydroplanes, hot dogs and cruising in the boat with skipper Bill. In order to balance the general redneck aesthetic, our guests at the marina are encouraged to dress in theme; either 1960s prep-nautical-fabulous, or duran duran rio dancer video, do whatcha like. We are going to drink pimm’s cups, wear blazers and cruise the lake in style.
And so it was. Dressed to the nines we planned to show these sea-faring folk quite how it should be done. Some bystanders watched with bewilderment, especially in the pre-outing trip to Fred Meyer, but most were clearly jealous of the style and class that had serendipitously touched their lives on this otherwise uninteresting day in August.
My favorite (overheard) comment of the day: “I think they might be British”.
Complete Seafair set on Flickr
Seattle Seafair, the Blue Angels and plastic bags
Seafair can mean only one thing: the Blue Angels are back in town and they have been roaring over the city all week during practice.
The contrast is delicious: as a city we’re proud to have recently-passed plastic bag ban (which is a good move) and yet today we’ll all gather and watch a fleet of F/A-18s each burn some 1300 gallons of jet fuel for the show along.
(I know that plastic bags are largely made from ethylene, derived from natural gas, and the petroleum by-product used in the process, naphtha, would probably just be flared off otherwise, but still, the ban is more about changing habits to cut down on wanton excess and wasteful habits.)
Bonus fact: Over the course of a year, the Blue Angels use 3.1 million gallons of fuel for transportation, training, shows, etc. Wow.
