Fleet Week
Of all the annual events held in San Francisco, Fleet Week is possibly the most exciting. The US Navy and Marines visit the city every year during the Columbus Day weekend with a flotilla of ships and they host a superb air show over the waterfront.
The main attraction of the airshow are the Blue Angels, the US Navy’s aerobatics team. The tightly choreographed maneuvers with a team of six F/A-18 Hornets are the main reason why the entire San Francisco waterfront was packed with viewers. The jets announced themselves with a sonic boom and presented one of the finest aerobatic displays. The Blue Angels were also accompanied by several other performers - the Air Force ViperWest, and several civil aerobatics teams - TeamOracle, Patriots, and a bevy of military aircraft including a C-130 and helicopters.
My last visit to Fleet Week was in 2005, where I watched part of the display stuck in a traffic jam in North Beach for over an hour. Today, we parked in the Financial district and walked up the Embarcadero to Fisherman’s Wharf. It was a 40 min walk, but with clear skies and mild weather, we had no reason to complain.