Arctic Thunder 2008

With a deafening roar, the F22 Raptor streaks through the air. Clinging tightly to his father, Bentley shies away from the thundering reverberations but refuses to put earplugs in.



Thus went much of the air show that Bentley went to with his dad, Grandma Vicki and Opa. Bentley is not one to deal with large crowds and loud noises, so as in this picture he preferred to stay in someone's arms for most of the show.



Bentley was our guide for the afternoon and while somewhat quiet he had definite opinions about what he wanted to see and gave directions on where to go. He liked the bus that we rode in on from the parking lot (a grass field maybe a mile away from the exhibition) and pointed out dump trucks blocking off the residential areas, and the fire trucks out in view on the ride in. He called the small planes "bugs" when I mentioned to him that they sounded like mosquitos and he seemed eager to check out the aircraft on display. Some of the planes were the same ones he saw with his dad and Opa at the air museum a couple of months ago. He thought the large hangers were a little quieter than out in the open and made repeated attempts to point us back in.


He wasn't the most cooperative for the obligatory nose cone shot with Grandma Vicki and Daddy....


nor was he excited about posing in front of the raptor! However, he was excited about the jet car (that went from 0 to 400 mph in about 5 seconds) and clutched the car postcard in his hands all the way home. He gave his postcard of the Raptor (seen in Dad's hand) to Jake and Viva.



During the F16 and F22 demonstrations, Bentley passed from shoulder to shoulder as he sought relief from the roar of the engines, and while it might appear that he didn't enjoy the show, it was difficult to convince him that it was time to go back to the car before the Thunderbirds took off for their part of Arctic Thunder 2008. We made it back to the car just in time as the engines were warming up and while driving home Bentley had a perfect view of the Thunderbirds through the car's moon roof while he commented that dad's car was hurt by the booming engines.