Just one thing marred an otherwise lovely afternoon …

In the midst of the jet noise, the just-for-show smoke, the excited kids (young and old) … sprung, like some giant weed, right on the Museum of Flight front lawn — a huge portable video screen hawking Turner Classic Movies on behalf of Comcast. Of course sponsorship involvement is a given at big events like this (especially when most of the onlookers aren’t paying, somebody’s got to), but when you’ve got thousands of people at your place to watch certain planes land, take off, and do flybys, blocking part of the view — and contributing noise pollution — with a huge video screen showing movie promos, is not just dumb, it’s annoying. The feeble attempt at a tie-in — a model of the “Casablanca” plane next to the screen and the TCM and Comcast tents — didn’t work. At least for us. Call us a crab. PLEASE OH PLEASE, you delightful Museum of Flight people, don’t bring that back next year. At least, not the giant video screen.

OK, now on to the Blue Angels bullet points:

-Still haven’t found any confirmation whether one of the jets dropped out of the Friday practice before it ended. Interesting, though, that the engines on #1 were tested a few times in the hour and a half before today’s show (after we joined the crowd on the fence, almost directly in front of #1).

–“Fat Albert” got almost as raucous an ovation as the six jets. And its plummet-to-the-ground landing seems just as daring as any of their maneuvers.

-The bomb-sniffing dog that’s taken past the fence a few times before the pilots arrive is the most beautiful Great Dane/German Shepherd/whatever (don’t know much about dogs) we’ve ever seen. Toffee-and-chocolate-colored coat.

-As usual, the parents on the fence seemed a lot more excited and giddily fan-boy/fan-girl-ish than the kids. Lots of “can we go yet?” whining from the little ones, as the parents pleaded for patience.

-No matter how cool/nonchalant you pride yourself on being, you can’t help but wave as each pilot makes his sharp right turn to taxi toward the runway and gives the fence crowd a wave and/or thumbs up. You’re standing there thinking, these guys are about to go zooming zillions of feet in the sky, jillions of miles per hour, in conditions that make untrained people black out, just to show off for us — least we can do is wave back.

-If you are amused at the sight of non-runners running, watch certain members of the fence crowd try to get over to the runway fence, after the pilots taxi away from the plane-parking-zone fence. (What you realize after you’ve done this a few times is that you have plenty of time to make the move — the Blues usually have to chill a while on the runway.)

-The takeoff view is better from the lawn in front of the southern half of the MOF, than from the runway fence — since there’s a bit of an upslope. (Even with the aforementioned annoying Turner Classic Movies screen.)

-If you choose to go inside the MOF once the Blues take off, you’ll want to be outside no more than about 20 minutes later, to catch great views of the high-show stunts, such as the Fleur-de-Lis, and of course, the breakaway flyby (who knows what it’s officially known as!) just before they circle back to land.

And if for any reason you’ve never been inside the MOF, it’s a must-see, from the space exhibits on the lower floor (Apollo, Mars, even “astronauts with Washington state ties” — including the MOF’s big boss Bonnie Dunbar) to the newer warplane wing (even if you’re not that into planes, you’ll be delighted by side touches such as the audio displays of what you could hear on the radio during wartime — including a commercial for Kraft Macaroni and Cheese as a patriotic dinner choice!).

We’ll be back tomorrow … for this year’s swan song (snif snif) …