We were at Paine Field Aviation Day. It was fun. Alex was not very impressed by the smaller planes (or the tortoises), even when they flew fast and low (well, not the tortoise). But in between the planes that were actually part of the air show, 747’s and 787’s were taking off, landing, and doing emergency stop tests and other things… and THAT had his full attention.

It wasn’t too horribly crowded, which was great, and it wasn’t hot, also great. And the mix of planes, from the historic WWII aircraft and such, to the 787’s and Cessna’s in between was just fun. As was simply being able to stand right by the runway and watch as the big planes land and take off. You can’t really do that at commercial airports any more.

I remember when I was a kid my parents taking me to the observation deck at Raleigh/Durham airport in North Carolina, where we could just sit and watch the planes. You can’t really do that any more because of all the security theater, which is a shame.

(All pics taken by my mom.)

Edited 09:26 UTC to add photo attribution.