Venue: The Historic Spirit of St. Louis Airport, Chesterfield

Early in the morning on May 20, 1927 Charles A. Lindbergh took off in The Spirit of St. Louis from Roosevelt Field near New York City. Flying northeast along the coast, he was sighted later in the day flying over Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. From St. Johns, Newfoundland, he headed out over the Atlantic, using only a magnetic compass, his airspeed indicator, and luck to navigate toward Ireland. The flight had captured the imagination of the American public like few events in history. Citizens waited nervously by their radios, listening for news of the flight. When Lindbergh was seen crossing the Irish coast, the world cheered and eagerly anticipated his arrival in Paris. A frenzied crowd of more than 100,000 people gathered at Le Bourget Field to greet him. When he landed, less than 34 hours after his departure from New York, Lindbergh became the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.

Paid 8 bucks just for admission!

Beautiful Candy Land!

You scream, I scream, We all scream for Ice Cream!

Pizza anyone?

Wheeeee ....

This was really intersting to watch... They were having a competition to see which dog could "fly" the furthest! Better not stand too near! It's a big splash!

My lunch! It's called Funnel Cake. I remember Liz (a social worker at MPC) was telling me that she always enjoyed having Funnel Cakes at such fairs. Decided to try one. Not too bad... it's basically some deep fried flour with coated with custard sugar.

My STL Fighter planes ...

Anyway, one reason why I was there (and paid 8bucks!) was also because the Blue Angels were there. I've heard of the Blue Angels on many occasions and I thought I wanted to see how they were. Anyway, it also seemed that most of the crowds were there to see the Blue Angels. Clearly the crowds loved the Blue Angels with their cheering and ughs and ahs...

The Blue Angels

The Blue Angels’ mission is to enhance Navy and Marine Corps recruiting efforts and to represent the naval service to the United States, its elected leadership and foreign nations. The Blue Angels serve as positive role models and goodwill ambassadors for the U. S. Navy and Marine Corps.
A Blue Angels flight demonstration exhibits choreographed refinements of skills possessed by all naval aviators. It includes the graceful aerobatic maneuvers of the four-plane Diamond Formation, in concert with the fast-paced, high-performance maneuvers of its two Solo Pilots. Finally, the team illustrates the pinnacle of precision flying, performing maneuvers locked as a unit in the renowned, six-jet Delta Formation.
The team is stationed at Forrest Sherman Field, Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida, during the show season. However, the squadron spends January through March training pilots and new team members at Naval Air Facility El Centro, California.
The Blue Angels are scheduled to fly 66 air shows at 35 air show sites in the United States during the 2007 season, as the team celebrates 20 years of flying the F/A-18 Hornet. Last season, more than 15 million spectators watched the Blue Angels perform.

They were really good. They put up a display for nearly 45 mins and I was just so amazed at their capabilities, speed and stunts. I remember there was this time during the show when we were all trying to spot where the Blue Angels were, when they suddenly zoomed out of nowhere, with their loud turbo engines just above our heads. The crowd just when wowowowow ...

I tried to catch a shot of the Blue Angels. Can you spot them?

Nope.

They were just too damn fast (or ... I was just too darn slow)

Another loser shot of the Blue Angels.

Finally. My best shot.

¶ 9/01/2007 11:04:00 PM