air show in the rain

Aaron, Nicole, Chad and I drove up to Chippewa Falls, WI for the weekend. Aaron's Dad, Ralph, and his Dad's wife, Pat, live up there in a beautiful home. The last few summers we've made a point to visit for one excursion or another.

This time, it was the Chippewa Valley Air Show, featuring the Blue Angels. It had been YEARS since I had last seen them, and Chad had actually never been to an air show before, so needless to say, we were pretty pumped for the weekend events, even though they were forecasting thunderstorms for the whole weekend.

Friday on our way up, we stopped for dinner at Dave & Buster's, which was a first for all of us. A swanky, adult Chuck E. Cheese – you can't go wrong. Fun times! :)  Saturday morning, we prepared for the air show and enjoyed walking around the grounds, looking at the different planes on display. Gotta love that festival food, too! The show started at noon, just in time for it to start raining. :(  But of course, it's still an air show, so it's still worth standing in the rain for.

We saw the parachuting Golden Knights, a couple different stunt planes, a school bus & an outhouse with jet engines, an F-16 and The Blue Angels. No amount of rain can take away the rush you get from a roaring F-16 over your head or the ridiculously tight maneuvers of the 6 Blue Angels. Just pure rugged elegance. No matter how many times you see them, they are good every time! Wow....  I just wish the sky was a little more picturesque for the photos--shooting skyward in the falling rain isn't the most conducive for crisp shots, but they'll definitely serve as representations of memories for us.

Despite our soaking wet clothes and shivering bodies, all 6 of us LOVED the show. A delightful little man named Warren added to our day's entertainment as well, right Pat? :)  A dry change of clothes, delicious pizza at the "Fill-in Station", and a "show-and-tell" presentation of Aaron's New York trip rounded out our evening very nicely.

After an egg-breakfast, photo editing and relaxation Sunday morning, we were on the road again, 6 hours back to Kenosha. Memories were certainly made on this adventure! Chad and I now have the itch to go to the Oshkosh air show later this summer. Hopefully we can make that work.

Here's some more photos from the weekend.

Here's a couple videos of The Blue Angels, which will not even come close to doing them justice to being in-person, but hope you enjoy anyway: