In this week’s episode of “Brave or Foolhardy? The JNack Parenting Adventure,” I bundled up the lads for their first air show. Margot was off for a girls’ weekend with her friend Alethea, but I was ably supported by my fellow plane-nerd Bruce & his son Noel. As Noel is used to looking after his 4-year-old sister Anja, Bruce says “He’s good at sheep-dogging little kids.” That’s quite true, and I think Henry might need to register the online name NoelFan09 for future use. 🙂
We cruised up to Santa Rosa (about 2 hours away, north of SF), fueling up with melon chunks & cookies at a “Food Hole” (Whole Foods) along the way. I’d foolishly forgotten our stroller, making for some serious tot-lugging. As such I couldn’t get a ton of photos, but I got enough for a little gallery. Highlights:
- Seeing a bunch of real fire airplanes up close. At bedtime later we made up stories about them (inventing a trio called Hoser, Big Belly, and Tank, who save Hoot, Milos, & co. from immolation).
- Walking up the tail ramp & then around inside an enormous C-17 Globemaster III. Now Henry announces, “I’m a C-17! I’m putting trucks in my big boca!”–after which he tries to ingest my fingers (the “trucks”).
- Enjoying the bunk beds on an old DC-6 Liftmaster. Finn especially liked picking at the ancient seats (“Look, Dad-O, I’m making the foam disintegrate!”) until I put a kibosh on that fun.
- Watching the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office demonstrate the Henry 1 chopper! The machine is used for retrieving lost hikers (just like Harold in Thomas’s Misty Island Rescue). I didn’t record the video below, but we watched a very similar demonstration, complete with booming explosions, “bad dudes,” & smoke. Too bad we never did find their booth & get Henry 1 T-shirts.
Thanks to Noel & Bruce for being excellent wingmen*! Our guys were troopers with the sun & noise (“The [F-15] Eagles were too loud,” Henry keeps noting), and I foresee many happy returns.
* See what I did there? Bah-dum, tssch!