I certainly enjoyed all the different planes they had throughout the afternoon, but the highlight for me was when the Thunderbirds performed at the end. It was literally awe-inspiring and I found my eyes tearing, with a phrase I'd heard somewhere running through my head about "American exceptionalism."

They even had a sense of humor -- the PA told us to watch the main four do some really complicated maneuver and we were all watching and thinking...umm...this doesn't look as complicated as some of the other stuff they'd done -- when one of the single pilots buzzed really close over our heads from behind and scared the crap out of the crowd. The whole crowd laughed for the next few minutes.

One thing that surprised me was that the men speaking on the PA were going on and on at various times about the greatness of the military and how this or that plane coming along would bring bad news to the bad guys. It sounded off to me somehow and I kept waiting for something, but I couldn't figure out what. Finally I figured out that I haven't heard people speaking well of the military at that length for a long, long time. I'm used to the only references being bad ones -- the military didn't have this equipment or the poor soldiers were stuck with that bad plan...I guess I've been more influenced by the mainstream media than I thought.

Here are some pics.