It's Fleet Week this week in SF, which is highlighted by an airshow over the bay featuring the Blue Angels on Saturday & Sunday. Yesterday and today they did their practice runs, and I have to tell you it is surreal and trippy to be in the office, out on the street, or in your apartment when this occurs. The sound of the sonic boom that the Blue Angels make literally sounds like the building that you are in is about to get blown to smithereens by a missle- it's very trippy. You know that it is coming but for a second or two it still sounds like you are about to meet your maker and it freaks you out a little. The building shakes a bit, car alarms go off form the noise vibration, and you can feel it in your body.
View of the bay from the rooftop (8 Oct 2005)
Today I had to cover the 6-3 shift so I got home just in time to go up on the rooftop and watch the Blue Angels get their practice on. I had almost forgotten how incredible watching them is. Even though is it a good bit cloudy & foggy today, it was still amazing. Makes today one of those days where you don't question why you are paying crazy rent to live in SF but rather you are reminded that you are doing exactly the right thing.
Landlords, fire marshalls, and insurance companies
will all be nervous this weekend.
My rooftop is a great spot because you have a 330 degree view of the city and the bay, and the rooftops of all the apartment buildings are full of spectators. The speed at which these planes travel and maneuver, the noise they make, and the fact that several times they fly less than 500 feet right over my bldg. is just awesome. To see this at an airshow in a field somewhere is cool enough, but to see it against the backdrop of the city and bay is surreal and amazing, especially how low and close they fly to buildings, the water, and the bridges, not to mention each other.
Solo run over the GGB.
The NIMBYs flood the Mayor's office with noise complaints, and the uber-lefties complain in disgust about the cradle of US liberalism glorifying/paying tribute to the military industrial complex, but personally I love it.
Yes, they're upside down.
I sure hope the weather is good this weekend; last year it was perfect both days. Saturday especially was a contender for Day of the Year 2005. Mom was in town, in the morning we went up to the bridge , then up to the Marin Headlands, then down to Sausalito for brunch, and finally back to my pad. Jim Beam stopped by and we watched #5 Georgia hobnail boot #8 Tennessee for the 3rd time a row at Neyland stadium by the score of 27-14, then up to the rooftop to enjoy the amazing air show on a beautiful sunny 75 degree day.
C5 (I think?) circles around the Transamerica Bldg.
They have Fleet Week on this weekend every year, so if you ever are planning a trip to SF this is a wonderful weekend to come out; in the year and a half I have lived here this may very well be the coolest thing I have seen. Anyhow, here are some pics from last year as well as a couple of videos I shot which is of average quality- my camera goes in and out of focus with moving objects at a distance, and those planes are hard as hell to track, especially after 2 souvenir cup Beam & Cokes during the UT-Georgia game (ignore the dorky, rambling commentary by Kanu & Jimmy Beam btw).
Golden Gate Bridge...
...past Angel Island and over Alcatraz...
...and...
...over to the Bay Bridge. All in about 40 seconds.
Now that I've written this, we'll probably have inside-of-the-milk-jug fog all weekend.
2 comments:
There's never any doubt when they are flying by. I used to live down near Point Mugu NAS, and they would usually come by for the annual air show. LOUD, but worth seeing at least once...
C-5's a jet. That's a C-130. Still a pretty cool picture, though.
Post a Comment