It’s fleet week. Both Thursday and Friday the Blue Angels hurtled by the windows of my 11th floor office while I worked, practicing their routines over the City. Saturday I took the bus down to Marina Green and walked up just as the Navy ships were slipping into the Bay. I found my friends and we wandered past Fort Mason, up the hill, past the hostel, and down near Aquatic Park. The sky was clear and blue and the weather was perfect and warm and breezy. The Air Race was spectacular with its crazy stunt flyers. My favorite is the off kilter barrel roll into a free fall, it never looks like they’ll make it out of that one.
After the race we headed up the steep sidewalks to North Beach and roof deck party number 1. It had a pretty good view as well as a keg and some nice people to meet and stand around with. We all ooh’d and ahh’d as the Blue Angels cut between buildings and did their fancy formation maneuvers. And after the party wound down our group went by Grant and Green to another friend’s wine bar for some tapas. When the group to split up I went back to the neighborhood with my neighbor and we tromped over to Dolores Park to sit on blankets and watch Tootsie on the big screen with all the other neighbors. And after the movie, 3 of us hung out and played records and drank Smirnoff Ice and wore dum hats while dancing around the living room (being dum is fun).
Sunday I pulled myself out of bed on another gorgeous blue sky day and hopped on the back of my pal’s motorbike and went down to the Columbus Day Parade. We checked out the park full of Ferraris and then found a free spot at one of the Italian restaurants that pull their tables out to the street for the festivities. We watched drum corps, horses, and waving princesses while eating a fat plate of spaghetti with meatballs. We finished just in time to head uphill to roof deck party number 2 of the weekend. A fancier home with a higher roof, we had a great view of the air maneuvers. Somehow the noise and speed and machinery just never get boring – at least not when you see it only once a year.
Posted by allison at October 9, 2005 07:20 PM