I had an absolutely amazing blast over the last few days. My boyfriend and I went to Sun N Fun in Lakeland, Florida. Our flight left out of Niagara Falls, NY on Thursday afternoon. It was great to fly out of such a small airport. Everything went very smoothly. We were smacked in the face with heat after stepping off the plane in Clearwater, Florida. It was almost 90 degrees! Ugh! The bad news was that there were thunderstorms forecasted for the two days we were going to be at the aviation expo. On a good note, they never happened.
We hit the expo around 10:00 the next morning:
It was overcast all day and VERY windy. We first hit a couple of the hangars with tons of exhibitors. In the second one we visited, we ran into another Recreational Aircraft Association member and his wife. Before heading to Florida, we said that we would meet up and have dinner on the Friday night. It was just so convenient to run into them like that. They recommended that we take one of the the tractor tours of the flightline and planes on display. Sounded like a great idea. After wandering around for another hour or so, we headed out to the tour which consisted of a tractor pulling a trailer with benches.
It was awesome – thirty minute ride all over the grounds for only $5 a person. I managed to get a ton of great pics during it:
When we drove toward the front of this plane, we noticed the hammock:
After the tractor tour, we wandered around a bit more then went over to our seats to watch the air show. It was amazing. I managed to get some more decent pics:
While the above planes were flying, they had simulated bombs going off below them:
Then there were some aerobatic performers:
It was nice that it was so overcast, so we weren’t looking up into the sun.
Everything during the first day at the expo was fantastic. We met up with the other RAA member and his wife at 5:00 and they followed us over to a great pizza place that Mike had been to before. Actually, Mike and I went there the night before for dinner too. Probably the best pizza I’ve ever had (ABC Pizza):
The next morning, we got up and went downstairs for breakfast. Mike was thrilled when I pointed out the pancake maker. We were both surprised to see that all you had to do was push a button and two pancakes magically spewed forth after a few minutes:
How exciting!
Back at the show, we stumbled upon this helicopter that is the perfect size for my little mother:
I brought Donkey with me and he was enjoying the show and exhibitors as much as we did:
Check out this cutie we saw on the cart of one of the volunteers:
Mike and I also admired the gun tower the Police set up:
Ok, so they just called it an “observation tower” but whatever!
We watched another over two hours of air showage on our second day there. Both were amazing. I still can’t believe that I lasted over six hours each day at the expo, especially with my heat intolerance!
We both had a total blast and were sad to go home on Sunday.
I really wish that I had slept in this morning to help recover a bit. Stubborn ol’ me set my alarm for my normal 6:23 time. Ugh. I ended up having to leave work at 1:45 today, as I was not feeling well at all.
Today’s symptoms: Felt totally drained, weak and quite a bit of pain all over. Basically, it felt like I had the full-blown flu today. I kinda expected this would happen after everything I did during the previous few days. Totally worth it though!
Lizzy McFly 