The Vigo Air Show & Bouzas

The Vigo Air Show was awesome. Everything went off well and an estimated 350,000 people watched. The crazy thing about air shows in Spain is that they are free to the public. One of Mike's friends and work contacts up in Vigo named Pablo is in charge of the whole show. He told us that when he tells his military contacts from other countries that there is no entrance fee to air shows in Spain they are flabbergasted thinking of all the potential profits. Lucky Spaniards! Jay and I walked from our hotel down to Samil beach where the show was taking place. It was insanely crowded. Luckily we were able to meet up with Mike at the "VIP" tent and Jay had a little space to run around. In fact he played ball with Pablo's girlfriend's kids who are incredible young men. They're only 8 and 13 but they act so much older. When we went to their house for dinner they were so polite and helpful. The 13 year old stayed with the adults the whole time taking in every word of the conversation and commenting too. He loves Mike. After meeting him last year he decided he wants to follow in Mike's line of work. Of course he'd like to be a pilot too like Pablo. Why can't you do both? Anyway, the two boys and their cousins played ball with Jay at the air show and he was in heaven. He thought he was so cool! He did get pretty scared when the Spanish F-18 planes came by. They were seriously loud, but really fun to watch. We liked watching the Portuguese helicopters and the Canadair 43 Group.
We decided to head back to the hotel before the USAF B-1 Lancer and the Eurofighter Spanish Air Force jet came though. The Eurofighter actually breaks the sound barrier! Not good for little ears. I saw the B-1 fly by our hotel twice while Jay was sleeping. It was so cool to see. I guess the Spanish were pretty excited down at the beach. Mike said they couldn't stop talking about it. The U.S. also had two A-10's there as well. It was cool to see the U.S. planes flying. It made me feel proud to be an American - in a good way. I'm sure the other countries were just as proud as their air fleet. Everyone did a really great job.

Later that night we went to a festival in Vigo in the Bouzas district. It was a lot of fun. We ate octopus and empanada. Check out the way the octopus are cooked.

Cool, huh? Jay especially loved the empanada. Mmm... thanks for the bite mom!

We walked around and checked out all the games and rides which made me feel like I was back in the States at a fair. Same wheelers and dealers trying to get you to waste your money :) We bought some hojaldritas for dessert which are traditional cake-like donuts. They were excellent. We also saw a religious procession taking place down a little street. This is pretty typical at Spanish festivals. Each church has their own set of floats - I guess that's the best word for them. They are really intricate though and made of expensive materials. Most either depict the crucifixion or carry a statue of Mary. People dressed in robes carry the floats and they are trailed by a band playing music and several other people. sometimes holding candles. It was interesting to see but we've seen several by now so we didn't watch long. After walking around the festival a while longer we made our way back to the hotel so that we could watch the fireworks display from our balcony. When the first one went off Jay was terrified and clung to me with all his might, urging me inside. I put him in his crib and he went right to sleep - his quick jump to dreamland a mix of exhaustion and desire to block out those scary lights in the sky! Mike and I enjoyed watching them together. It was a perfect end to a another great day in Galicia.