Zoom...Whizz...Vroom...

as i'm writing...i mean...typing this, F-18 fighter planes are zigzagging over my apartment.
no, it ain't a terrorist attack. and they are not for my protection.
it's the largest free air show in the United States. Chicago is known as America's City of Festivals and Events. so, especially in summer, there is not a day that goes by without this or that event happening.

the air show shook up the lakefront (the Great Lake Michigan) yesterday and continues today. i'd gone yesterday to the shore with a couple of pals. my home is by the lakeside.

one of the world's premier aviation events, the show includes a wide array of military and civilian acts. people had gathered in huge crowds all over the beaches that lie spread out across many miles of the city's favorite shoreline. for many Midwestern families, it is an annual picnic. the show lasts from 12 noon to 4 pm.

there were numerous boats, small yachts and cruise ships parked in deeper waters of the lake with people there waiting to get an 'other side' view of the show.

the pilots performed cool stunts.
the speed! the maneuvers!

two planes come real fast at each other, almost collide and at the last minute they change direction!
(me was reminded of 'pearl harbor', the movie).

another heavy plane - it came soundless from our left, over the lake, parallel to the beaches, climbed down steeply, flew very low above the blue waters, and then climbed back up slow and steep to disappear into the murky skies.
slow clinical depiction of methodical arrogance.

two fighters - one upside down and the other exactly over it. they flew in tandem!
then they did the same with three other birds closely surrounding the aerial lovemaking duo.

the vrooming sounds were threatening and exciting at the same time! a great experience.

it was a cloudy day. we were standing by the lakeshore with the city to our back and the lake panorama enveloping us.
sometimes, slowly we'd hear the humming sound of an invisible approaching plane, probably from the stratosphere.

all the gathered people would search the gloomy skies to spot the blighter making the noise. some of them, when they couldn't see anything on the skies over the lake, would turn back.

and suddenly the metal bird would roar out of the clouds from above the city's downtown skyline.
majestic.

.