Blue Angels 2019
Three things make this year's trek to watch the Blue Angels Seafair Air Show stand apart from the previous five times I have gone.
First, the photo quality. These would be the best photos I have managed to take of the flying planes since my digital camera died in 2010. Actually, looking at some of this year's photo album now, I think these might actually be the best quality shots I have ever gotten -- even better than the digital camera shots I got for the 2005 and the 2009 photo albums. That camera died when I dropped it on the pavement by the Alaskan Way Viaduct in 2010, and thereafter I relied only on my iPhone camera -- even though that camera was not as good.
But! Now, I have my binoculars I can take photos through with my phone. I did not even realize what level of clarity that managed, even with fast-flying planes, until I was looking at and editing them enlarged on my desktop computer once I got home today. At least 11 shots of the shots in today's photo album were taken through my binoculars, and although not all of those are perfect, most of them are almost shockingly fantastic.
The total number of usable shots I get out of the Blue Angels Seafair show really seems to depend on the year. This year's set has 30 shots (29 photos and 1 video); the last time I went, in 2017 -- because last year I was in Olympia for the annual family get-together that weekend -- had 36 shots (34 photos and 2 videos). 2014 and 2010 each yielded only 21 shots. 2009 yielded 34 shots (32 photos and 2 videos); only the 2005 set has as many as 60 shots, obviously because it was my first time going to watch, and in years thereafter there are only so many new angles you can get on what is basically the same air show every year. In fact, this year's 30-shot photo album features only 22 shots from during the actual air show, and only 15 of those are actual shots of the planes! But hey, most of those are great and are the clearest shots of the planes I have ever managed to take.
I really tried to take many more, but holding a smartphone camera steady pressed against the eye hole of a pair of binoculars, and getting it centered correctly, and focused through it, is rather difficult. Especially when doing all of that while trying to trail super-fast jets flying through the air! I did pretty damned well, all things considered.
Anyway! Shobhit gave me a ride to the Capitol Hill Light Rail station on his way to work, and I got on the 12:05 southbound train. I had coordinated all of this yesterday in texts with Gina, and only minutes before, she texted me that she and Beth had made it on the train immediately previous to the 11:59 northbound out of Angle Lake Station as I had recommended to her. It was 11:52 when she texted me she was on the train. So, predictably, they were already on the ground beneath the elevated Mount Baker Station when I arrived myself, at about 12:21.
And then we set out on our roughly one-mile walk from the station to Lake Washington, the shortest distance between any Light Rail station and the lake (hence that the decision to meet at that location), where we walked over to Mount Baker Park, cut through the park northward, and landed at Mount Baker Beach. I had never been to either, and the park, while not huge, is very pretty.
We arrived at about 1 pm at my recommendation, with the intent of getting a decent place to lay my blanket totes on the ground, before it got too crowded. It was actually already pretty crowded even by then, but that was nothing compared to the packed crowds by the time 3:00 actually arrived and the air show was beginning.
All of this coordinating was part of a comparatively elaborate Plan B when I found out I-90 would not be closing for the air show this year, for the first time in ages. I cannot find any source saying exactly how long ago it was the floating bridge was last kept open, although KIRO 7 said it's been "decades." This change is permanent, though: it's about the "box" area safety zone of the Blue Angels flight path, which has been shifted south because of the Light Rail line to Redmond, set to open 2023, as Light Rail will not suspend services for the show. And construction is currently underway on those tracks -- you can even see some minor construction elements in this shot I took from the beach (through my binoculars!).
In any case, I was kind of bummed that this was the year they stopped closing the freeway, as it was the selling point I had used to invite Gina and Beth to come up from Olympia to see the show: watching from the freeway is so cool! Well, now that's history. Damn it! On the upside, they were apparently thrilled to come and watch the air show for the first time, even just from the beach on Lake Washington.
I packed my two blanket totes into another tote bag, in which I had also packed a book (which I never read save for a few pages walking back home from the Capitol Hill light rail station after coming back), a bottle of water, a thermos of a Moscow Mule, several single serve sacks of chips (only Gina ate one of them), and the sandwich I made before leaving. Beth had a backpack with a packed lunch inside it, and we all ate our lunches very soon after we arrived there, two hours early.
It was pretty hot today, blue skies and around 80°. I smartly put on plenty of sunblock before leaving; Gina and Beth sprayed themselves with their own after arriving. We basically just sat exposed to the sun for three hours straight. Gina and Beth did go for a stroll at one point, and I lay down on my blanket and lightly snoozed, until they returned and Gina presented me with a Firecracker popsicle.
We otherwise just hung out and kind of shot the shit, chatting here and there, for those two hours. We were pretty focused on the planes ones the show started at 3:00, even though they flew on such wide radiuses that often they were out of sight for minutes at a time. It was still fun though, and even though this was my sixth time going, it was particularly fun to go with people who had never been before. That always makes something that is otherwise old hat to you, more fun.
Shobhit could not join us because he had to work. I figured out today that although I have watched the show six times, I have only done it with Shobhit twice -- Shobhit still has seen it three times himself, because of the near-miss we had in 2009, when we were meeting there, got our communications crossed, and wound up on opposite sides of the I-90 bridge, not finally finding each other again until the air show was over. So, Shobhit saw it in 2005, 2009 and the last time we went, in 2017. In 2010 he was in New York City and in 2014 he was in Los Angeles.
I thought it was possible, but very unlikely, that Gina and Beth and I would continue to hang out after the show was over -- they usually want to get back to their dogs. Today there was something happening at 6 pm Beth was hoping to get back to Olympia in time for. So when the show was over at about 4:00, we packed up and walked right back to the light rail station, the walk being much easier this time as it was downhill. Trains in both directions arrived within minutes of our arrival, the southbound one first, which they boarded after we took pictures of each other from opposite sides of the platform.
They really like this process, avoiding local Seattle traffic by driving to Angle Lake station and parking there, then taking the train the rest of the way into Seattle. Beth is eager for Light Rail to reach all the way down to Olympia, but even though Light Rail long range planning extends all the way into the 2040s, none of them include lines reaching all the way to Olympia -- only to Tacoma, with service set to reach there in 2030. That said, a park and ride in Tacoma is far easier an idea than driving all the way through Tacoma to Angle Lake, just south of the airport.
Otherwise, the closest to what Beth wants would be the DuPont Sounder commuter rail extension, to basically the halfway point between Olympia and Tacoma, set to begin service in 2036. 17 years from now! And, in all likelihood, that would be only running on weekdays during commute times, as it does now, so they'd have to take a day off of work to use it. But, maybe they would. And hell, 17 years from now they'll probably be retired anyway!
Actually I want to email them with this information now that I've found it. And I have lots still to do with the rest of my day. So I'll post this so I can get to all of that.
[posted 6:58 pm]