Waterloo Airshow

I got free tickets for the Waterloo Airshow from work, so took my niece H and nephew N to their first airshow. My sister dropped the kids off at 11, then we loaded up my car with snacks, jackets, dry clothes (it was a grey, showering day), put in a Psalty tape, and off we went. It took about an hour to get there and we saw a group of about 60 OPP motorbikes driving down the highway … not sure what that was about!

We parked in a field south of the airport and took the shuttle bus to the airport. There was a sprinkling of rain and the clouds were occasionally low, but most of the planes were able to perform. The first jet of the day was an F-16. I told the kids it would be loud, but I don’t think they realized quite how loud it was going to be! They both jumped a bit as it raced passed us!

We watched the F-16, then went off to explore some of the static displays while the less interesting acts were taking place. The kids got to sit in a cockpit of an old fighter, climb up onto the wing and look in the cockpit of another, and we went inside the C-130 that was also there. It just happened that while we were in the C-130, it started to POUR rain! Luckily, we were dry inside. The last act of the day was the Snowbirds, but because of a storm cell moving towards the airport, it was a shortened show and we were told to leave right away. They had plenty of buses ready to take us back to the parking lot, so we managed to get away before the rain started again. The kids enjoyed the airshow and were excited about it when they got home, but it was hard to tell whether or not I was torturing them while we were out there. H was continually asking “Now what?” N’s resounding theme was: “When are we going home? I want to go home. I’m bored. What do I do?” Of course, it was AFTER I got them back home that my sister told me that that was N’s resounding theme no matter where they were or what they were doing!