Let Freedom Ring

The 5 year-old, 3-year old and I had enough PBS for the morning and were about ready to start pulling our hair out. We had walked the halls of this late 1950s hotel. We had strolled outside to the closed-pool that was in much need of maintenance. We had lingered in the lobby with the cool ‘frog fountain’ that I was rather unimpressed with but it kept the boys busy… for all of three minutes.

So we gathered back in our hotel room to play this waiting game a little bit longer when all of a sudden I heard it. This wasn’t a train, a semi-truck rolling down the highway, nor a diesel school bus pulling around the corner. No, that engine I heard was the “Roar of Freedom”. I threw open the window (well cracked it anyway… it was pretty cold out) and told the boys “I just saw a jet!”

They stopped what they were doing and ran to the window. We watched him roll by and they heard his engine moments later. Wow, I was taken back to my childhood. The boys counted ‘7 or 8’ jets. Although I would surmise it was one or two just flying by us several times. The five year old wanted to call Grandpa to let him know what he just saw! “Jets, Grandpa, I just saw a jet!”

Then there was Tuesday morning. We had hung out at the armory this time in the morning but they put the area in lock-down after noon and we had to leave. So back to the hotel we went until Hubby got off for dinner around 4pm. The waiting game began again. I cracked the window for a little air in our overly-stuffy room and then I saw it. It is like the “Humpback Whale” of the skies: Mighty, Majestic and just boggles my mind! We watched a C-17 fly by us three or four times. What a stark difference between the “Jet” we saw Monday and the humongous C-17. I still don’t understand how that plane can make it two feet off of the ground much more up into the mighty skies of our great country.

The boys just stared in awe. Imagine that some people see those planes and think “Noise pollution”?! Not me, not my boys… I see them and think of the sound of “freedom”. Our hotel might have been about as crappy as they come but to the boys we had an ‘ocean front’ view. It couldn’t have gotten much better then that.