Did I Mention RED BULL sponsored the event?

My ill-fated trip to Coronado did not start off ominously. We were there for something Steve and I had been excited about for months. There is this super cool air race flown RIGHT through the bay, RIGHT outside Noni's condo called the Red Bull Air Race. I thought it was pretty cool before I knew anything about it. I had figured it would be way up high, I wasn't sure how much of the course we'd be able to see, that sort of thing. Well, that shows how much I know about flying. My first inkling that this would be different was the commercial I caught for it. It's "smaller" planes doing this crazy thing where they fly between inflated pylons with different rules for what they are supposed do - i.e. one set they are supposed to go through sideways (my poor pilot father-in-law is going to read my terms and cringe :) ), some straight through, others you have to bank all the way sideways one way then the other immediately. It was insane and quite impressive.


And there were perks. I knew the race was Sunday. I knew we were only staying Friday and Saturday. I knew we were going to see the race. I didn't exactly know how. It turns out Friday they were practicing. Saturday was time trials. So, we basically got to see everything without the crowds. AND David had a scanner so that we could hear the radio chatter... which made everything SO much more interesting. Before that there was a lot of, "Is that the silver plane with the green stripe or the green and yellow flame?" and "Quick! Get his number when he flies by before he loopy loops!" to try to follow who we were watching. After that we were insiders.


The unlikely star of the whole thing, the incredibly awesome daredevil pilots would be very annoyed to know, was the helicopter filming the event. He (for I have a crush on "him" therefore he must be a he) would wait over in one place and then there was a specific shot they would try to get each time which was coming from way up high, chasing the airplane through the cross pylons (the ones where pilots had to bank one way then the other). So from his neutral location he'd suddenly race up to a corner of the sky at some crazy angle the swoop down after the plane as it made its way through the course. It was quite cool.

There was plenty of family time. We went to the pool both days since it was heated, Abby ran her feet raw (hence Daddy holding her in the 2nd pool shot), and Jack had his first swim.

Everyone helped with Jack. I think I have separate pictures of everyone with Jack.

Sarah and I had a very nice game of Rummikub (with Ice Cream... it's a rule) while everyone else went to see Ironman.

It was really cool.

But lets not talk too much about Saturday... and please, let's never, ever mention the drive home. Jack had some screaming. Abby had some car sick. Auntie Samantha long ago earned her stripes... so I guess maybe she earned a purple heart. Oh, while we're not mentioning things, let's not mention that, sensing Steve was in for the sick wife of his life, I took the kids and spent the night at Gramma's for one last night of rest for him and was then promptly sick all over her new carpet... several times. Yeah. Let's keep that to ourselves too.