A slew of photos from one of my all-time favorite days I’ve had since moving here - my friend Kevin and I attended the Fleet Week Air Show a few Saturdays ago and it was outrageous!
San Francisco Fleet Week is an Event with a capital E, guys. Millions of people flood the cities - bars and restaurants and streets are filled with men in naval uniforms, there are countless parties and festivals, and it’s all capped off with a full weekend of air shows featuring the Blue Angels as the marquee performers. As I love few things more than parties, men in uniform, and unbelievable feats of daring aviation, this was right up my alley.
Kevin staked out a flawless viewing spot for us at the St. Francis Yacht Club’s beach…
Campers, I knew the minute we got there that this was going to be an outstanding day. I still get touristy shivers every time I see/cross the Golden Gate - it’s one of those things that I don’t think will ever cease to trigger wonder that I actually live here. I’ve spent fairly little time by the Bay, so sitting on the seawall watching kids and dogs play in the water, Alcatraz to my right, the skyline behind me and the Golden Gate looming on my left felt almost fairy tale-like.
We staked our spots out around noon, and the show started shortly after with trick flying by old planes, a “sky parade” of old WWII planes, a Coast Guard helicopter water rescue demonstration, and a super-low fly-by of a United 747 - they sponsor the air show, and were sure to get their bang for their buck! I felt like a kid in a candy store watching - the Bay at my feet, the sky as blue and fog-free as I’ve ever seen it here, kids and dogs all over the place…it was pretty heavenly.
Kevin, and Charlie and Tessa once they arrived, had a blast making fun of my excitement over the trick flyers. The pilot would kill the engine and death-spiral down toward the bay, so low that it looked inevitable that he’d hit the water, then pull up in a near-vertical rise. I clapped like a kid every time he’d reverse the fall - the novelty truly never wore off for me.
After several hours, it was finally time for the main event - the US Navy Blue Angels!
Guys, words and still images can’t do justice to how insanely cool it was to be where we were for this portion of the show. The six-man squadron looped the Golden Gate, spiraled all over the bay, and seemed sometimes to come truly out of nowhere. Every time they split up and went their separate ways for stunts, our crew would nearly dislocate our necks swiveling around and trying to spot them, yelling “THERE! Over there!” every time we saw a plane, or two, or four coming back over the ridge or around the coast.
The skytrail heart was one of my favorites…
As was this completely over-the-top (pun definitely intended) stunt - the photos don’t capture just how high they actually soared before flipping over, or the unfathomable synchronicity of the five planes. It truly boggles my mind, even now, to think about the precision, timing and sheer familiarity with each other these pilots must have mastered to be able to do this - in planes that are so high-octane that we had to hold onto the seawall to stand up straight as they buzzed our spot from a mere 100 yards overhead.
Their 45-minute show seemed like it went by in the blink of an eye - by the time it ended, I was hoarse from yelling, teary-eyed from staring straight up into a sunlit sky, and absolutely fried on the random patches I’d missed with sunscreen. It was beyond worth it - truly one of the most memorable experiences I’ve ever had in San Francisco, and one I’ll be repeating with just as much juvenile enthusiasm every year for as long as I live here!