SeaFair Traffic and Parental Guilt

I had allowed for extra traffic for SeaFair. I had allowed for extra time to park because Abby's camp is at the Museum of Flight and - you know - SeaFair (and therefore Blue Angels and everyone trooping down to the Museum and Boeing Field to watch). An hour and fifteen minutes from my place just north and slightly east of Seattle down to the South Seattle location of the Museum should be ample, right? Right?

Wrong.

What I hadn't accounted for was that they had closed I-90 (per the FAA) between I-5 and Mercer Island for the Blue Angels practice flight. That's the southernmost of the two bridges on this map I stole from the WADOT web site. While it had opened again by the time I got on the road, it does take several hours for that sort of thing to um... wear off, I guess. See, Seattle's traffic is as bad as it is in part because Lake Washington bisects the area... and it's something like 26 miles long. With only two bridges. And a lot of cars. And a mass transit system that needs work. Badly.

So I got there late. I called on the way to tell them and they were very nice. Abby was pleased to see me, but she was afraid I had forgotten to come get her (presumably because my dad has performed shuttle service up until now; Getting back to his place on a Friday afternoon is bad under the best of circumstances. Which these weren't).  She was full of stories about the Blue Angels, about how they were very nice even if they didn't sign everyone's shirt, just the first few people in line and she was number 6, and how Grandpa noticed she was sad about that so he signed her shirt himself because he's a pilot too. And stories ditto about how they made rockets with pop bottles and launchers and nose cones and stuff, and how Grandpa was cool and she got to ride in a simulator but she didn't get to fly it because her flight partner kept crashing the plane when he tried to land. I still felt a bit guilty for showing up late, but all was well.

I took a picture to compare with last years' photo. And bought her a teddy bear with a Blue Angels T-shirt. Tonight, Abby, Leanna, and Kiki are having a sleepover. And tomorrow we attend my niece Lucy's 2nd birthday party and in the afternoon I go off to help my mom and then have a little me-time in an effort to avoid the Second Night Meltdown. Wish me luck.

Abby 2010

Abby 2011