On Saturday (Oct. 13, 2012), six of us went to the Marine Corps Air Station in Miramar, California (near San Diego) to see the 2012 air show. Jeri, Justin, Nicole, Jeffrey, Josiah, and myself (Tim) made the 80-mile trip.
Although I knew that the drive would take a while, I was amazed at the volume of traffic on I-5 both southbound (our direction) and northbound. We left our house at 10:20 AM and after a quick stop to pick up a couple of bagels, we were on the Interstate by 10:30 AM. The drive was stop-and-go most of the way.
Around 1 PM, we arrived at Miramar. However it took us another half an hour to make it into the base and to a parking spot. Then we had to walk about 20 minutes from the parking area to the show.
Here we are watching, the AV-8B Harrier perform its vertical take-off and landing demonstration.
Of course, the Blue Angels were fantastic! Except for Josiah (who wasn’t born at the time), we had seen the Blue Angels before at the Quad City Air Show back when we lived in Rock Island, Illinois. They never cease to amaze. I was most impressed when the six Blue Angels started from six different directions and they all crossed at the same time in front of us!
The afternoon show ended around 4 PM. Then we looked at the various ground displays. Here’s Josiah with a Marine Captain who has flown the Cobra helicopter in battles in Afghanistan.
We stayed for the evening show. The best part was F/A-18 afterburner passes. We left before the fireworks show. The drive back home was fast; we made it from the air show parking lot to our house in less than 90 minutes.