50 years of fire power

Fun day in the Palm Desert yesterday!

Started with an air show in Indio - I've always been a sucker for air shows and my pal here, Mark, was supposed to pour beer for the Rotary Club at the air show, so there we were. Not a big show, but they had several great pilots flying aerobatics and lots of great old planes on the ground.

An F-15 did a lot of showing off, to the cheers of the crowd, and then he was joined in manuevers by a 50-year old Mustang. Really impressive to see the supersonic F-15 make a pass at the same speed as the old Mustang just a couple hundred feet off the runway!

The Patriots then performed several wonderful stunts with colored smoke and big engine noise. Altogether a marvelous show!

From there, we headed to an art exhibit in Rancho Mirage - held on gorgeous grassy, shaded grounds, with way too much stuff that was way too expensive - like a lovely bronze of a couple kids washing a dog in a big tub, which was a fountain as well, with suds overflowing, for the pittance of $22,500. I think I'll have to pass, though I really liked it!

After a quick pass thru the rain room to get rid of air show dust, it was time for Mark and his new girlfriend to pick me up for the luau (the whole reason for this little sidetrip!). It was a fund raising event for the Chamber of Commerce, with a silent auction on about 50 terrific packages, live auction on several more, and pretty good chow even if it wasn't luau food (drat!). Mark said those folks wouldn't have appreciated the good stuff, so they just had a big pig, undercooked, and really good BBQ ribs, good salad and green beans - tasty overall. There was entertainment by a local hula halau (translation - a dance troupe that does hula) who did a little bit Hawaiian, Tahitian, Mauri - pretty good dancers. They pulled a couple good little scams to raise more money - anyone could pay a few bucks to put someone else's name in a pot, forcing them to go up and hula with the dancers. That was a good giggle!

Fun night! And amazingly, though each lady received a lei when they arrived, many chose not to take them home. I rescued a whole bunch of leis - just couldn't leave them laying around to die, could I?

Did way too much yesterday, so I couldn't even walk today. But for being good and taking it easy today, I was rewarded with a spectacular sunset tonight!