For those of you who were just holding your breath till this whole Seafair thing was over, thanks for indulging us and scrolling past these posts. As for us, well, one more round of photos from the Museum of Flight (today’s pre-takeoff and post-landing), and then it’s off to dream about ’08.

More of what you don’t see if you only watch the airshow over the lake … click ahead:

We mentioned yesterday that we had noticed at least three female crew members in the contingent that comes out to check the jets and assist the pilots before and after takeoff. This trio features two of them, including one we believe to be local — Laura Fenlon from Oak Harbor (can’t miss that hair):

You wanna talk tough jobs … how would you like to be the crew member who holds the wheelstop till the jet comes to a complete stop? (No, that’s not a peace sign or “V for victory”; these two are waiting for Blue Angel #2, post-landing.)

After the show, the pilots climb out of their cockpits, in synch, then stand in front of their jets with two crew members each, awaiting their teammates for the post-show walkdown:

Meanwhile, these two guys stand on the other side of the fence; their mission — hand out official Blue Angels souvenir brochures to us fans:

Those who stayed on the fence a few more minutes got a chance at pilot autographs. We decided to take off, so to speak, but turned around for one last photo — the khaki hat in the middle of this belongs to Blue Angels pilot #2:

Next stop for the Blue Angels: the Oregon International Air Show in Hillsboro next weekend.

For the fine Museum of Flight folks, thanks for not bringing back that Turner Classic Movies screen we complained about last year, but we had some advice then that still stands now — you need to get better info, online and in person, to the crowds who come out to watch this spectacle, many of them experiencing your facility for the first time. We found ourselves playing volunteer info-helper on the fence, as so many people around us showed up either offering each other misinformation (“It’s noon, they’re late”) or asking plaintive questions to no one in particular (“Anyone have any idea when the pilots come out?”). Better yet — how about an official Museum of Flight Blue Angels week blog? (Hire us!) There’s an appetite for this insider stuff; our site logs show it — countless people found WSB this past week by searching for terms such as “where to see the Blue Angels take off.” Anyway, now it’s on to explore simpler summer pleasures (more Colman Pool, more Water Taxi, etc.) now that festival season is mostly over (but not entirely — Arts in Nature Festival at Camp Long in 3 weeks, for example).