I was so pumped for the day. Never had much interest in attending an air show growing up. Despite living in a Navy town near Naval Air Station Pax River. Today, as we live an easy 15 minutes from NAS Jacksonville, we thought the girls would love to see the stunt planes and various events, especially the Blue Angels. We set off first thing in the morning, gliding easily into an hour back-up attempting to get onto Base. As we approached the first gate, it seemed strange why so many civilians were entering there, as we had been instructed to enter through the Yorktown Gate. As we neared the entry, we were unable to continue straight to the correct gate and everyone was moving right towards the first gate and blocking traffic. Only to find out that we were being turned and around and rerouted to Yorktown anyway. Once we arrived and walked a good half mile to the entrance…we stood in line another hour in order to get through security. The girls were quickly losing interest and hubby was increasingly anxious. Once inside we greeted the infamous Kelly Harkins, regional MWR director and a dear friend who was waiting for us with a golf cart escort.

After the VIP treatment we promptly scouted a good spot. Jason parked himself and the girls and I ventured for food. 40 bucks got us 2 pretzels, a sausage with sauerkraut, and a water. I came back with little change and no food for Jason…much to his chagrin. He went off to find food for himself. We settled in to watch the NAVY Seals Leapfrogs parachute out with the American Flag to kick things off with the national anthem. After that there was an amazing lineup of stunt planes, helos, P40 WWII Bomber, and much more. As the morning session drew to a close the girls were steadily now losing interest. I was enjoying the shit out of the show, as everyone else began to unravel around me. (My 3 kids, girls and hubby). After some time the girls and I checked out the booths and kid zone. At this point Hazel lost her mind because I wouldn’t buy here a 10 dollar lemonade… Then the girls started pushing each other playfully or not so playfully until one or both were rolling on the ground crying. I came back to our spot and explained to Jason this was not going to last much longer. Jason in a huff packed up his chair and walked 30 paces at least in front of us as we started the journey back to the car. There were so many people still in queue at the security line, that others had just unfolded their chairs and sat waiting. We got back to the car about 20 minutes later, albeit being separated and trying to locate the car from memory. Once we were inside the car, it took at least another hour before being able to get home and off base. Not to complain too much, I did thoroughly enjoy my first air show. I could’ve done without the headaches and my three children. But nonetheless it was enjoyable. As we left base, there was a line of cars still at least several miles long attempting to get on base. As we arrived home I saw on Facebook that the amount of attendees had reached safety capacity by 1pm. A lot of cranky drivers and attendees today. I laugh to myself now about the day, a little tired but grateful I had a chance to enjoy the day with the fam, despite the circumstances.

• Uncategorized