Hog Heaven

That's what John and Sean-Peter were in this weekend when we went to the R/C (Remote Control) Air Show by the National Museum of the Air Force. Those suckers are big! Sean-Peter pulled me by the hand and chirped on excitedly about every new airplane we saw; stabbed his hand pointing at the sky and jabbered unintelligibly about every pass they made, performing their aerial acrobatics with all their twirls and spins and dives just as well as and even better than an air show with proper airplanes. I must say it was pretty cool.

We totally thought of our friend back in Italy, Mark Isajiw, who is a freak about remote control toys that fly. I guess you would have to say it's a hobby that Mark dabbles in, as these Big Boys and Their Toys at the air show are definitely in the Big League.

I repeated "Look, don't touch!" so many times I felt like I had Tourette's. But Sean-Peter did a good job of holding back despite himself. Here he is with a (relatively small) R/C craft that one of the Big Leaguers is apparently done with since he's putting is up for sale...... for a mere $10,000!Eat your heart out, Mark! They hold this show -- with R/C geeks from all over the country -- every Labor Day weekend, so now you guys know when to visit!

We caught an IMAX feature at the museum's theator: "Fighter Pilot". We took a chance that the little ones would last all the way through it, and since these shows are less than an hour long it did work out, mostly. Olivia has always loved airplanes and only needed a couple of reminders to sit down and be still. Sean-Peter also loves airplanes, it goes without saying, and was engaged during the whole viewing -- only sometimes it was with the three different seats he kept switching between, or with the people in front of us. (Who didn't appreciate his peering down into their faces to see how they were enjoying the show. In Italy we are not.)

"Fighter Pilot" was way, way cool. They took you into a Red Flag exercise at Nellis AFB, making you feel like you were one of the pilots zooming around the muddy mountains of Southern Nevada. Created a bit of nostalgia for our time there. (But not much.) John recognized some of the guys participating from when he was at the Weapons School. Ah, the good ole' days. Not.

We didn't get through the whole museum before someone petered out.

And Sean-Peter was tired, too.