Thunderbirds

When we first moved here to interview, my realtor picked me up where Mike works and she noted how close it is the Air Force Academy, and she said to me, "Wait until Graduation Day, and the Thunderbirds fly overhead, he's going to love being this close."

This is the U.S. Air Force Academy stadium on Graduation day. The graduation started at 10a.m. It's packed and the Secretary of the Air Force has given his commencement address, the cadets are wearing their dress service uniforms, and now the entertainment begins. If you don't like looking at airplane photos, then just leave now, because I took 106 and you're going to be seeing over 25. We met Mike in his parking lot, crossed the street, and parked in the Lockheed Martin parking lot, facing the Academy. We pulled out our lawn chairs and waited eagerly.
On Monday we heard some loud airplane noises and could see military planes flying overhead, so that's what I expected to hear, but instead I just saw smoke coming across the mountains.

The closer they got, the easier it was to see there were six jets, just coming over the Academy.
Here they are silhouetted against the mountains, still letting out their exhaust.
Smoke's off, and we see them flying in perfect formation, so close together, and going pretty fast, so its hard to imagine how they can do this, but it sure is cool to see.
They turn right in front of us. It's a bit cool, mid-50's, there are clouds mixed with blue skies and we're wearing coats.
Suddenly the pack of 6 finds 2 breaking away and going opposite directions.
Here come the four, circling around in front of Pike's Peak, heading back towards the stadium.
But before, they get there, one of the planes that had left earlier, swoops down, then the other, diving and coming up right after each other.
And now, here come the four - Upside Down! Pretty impressive, still super close together.
They really are beautiful and continue going around in all different directions, so we get lots of great views of them.
Here come the two lone rangers, one right side up and his buddy upside down, still super close.

Wow!
Here come two more. The smoky haze is leftover. There isn't a lot of downtime between one swoop down and the next.
These were my favorite, just watching them come from opposite directions straight at each other, going fast. Totally thrilling!
So awesome, they repeated it again.

Here they come again, the four in perfect precision.
This time they turn and head our direction. Mike works right off Interquest Parkway.
They're heading straight for us.
Right overhead, they sound loud.
And in seconds, they are pass us,
circling back towards the stadium,
into the clouds.
Then they come back and do it again, right over our heads. Isn't it neat to see clearly the thunderbirds painted on top of them.
And off they go,
now splitting all up to do what Mike called the Star, where they all cross over the stadium and then drew straight up, but you can only see one airplane come to the center at a time, and I didn't want to miss it, so no good pictures.
But eventually, they get back all together.
turn away from us, and one last discharge of smoke over the stadium, and off they disappeared, smoke off, quietly away from us, and then its over.
This show lasted about a half hour, and was fabulous! I can't wait until next year!