"There's got to be a morning after..."

I know it's hokey, but I can't get that song from the Poseidon Adventure out of my mind! Today is the "morning after" (well, the air didn't clear until this afternoon, so the "morning" analogy gets lost a bit, but you get the point!)

I looked out the window about 4 pm, and saw clouds! I got so excited, I told Jason to come see -- blue sky and clouds! He cynically replied -- "no, it's just smoke mom" but I made him get up & see, then he got excited too.

We've been hearing the fire fighting helicopters for days, as they fill up their tanks from a nearby reservoir. But the smoky air wasn't safe for either Jason or the baby, so we've stayed indoors for neatly 48 hours now (ask me if I'm going crazy yet!). So with the clear air, we ventured out to watch the helicopters at work. We hung out next to a guy who is a freelance photographer, taking photos for the sheriff's department, who gave us a lot of inside scoop about the helicopters, where the fires are now, etc. Here are a couple of photos from our outing. It was fascinating to watch the helicopters at work -- what surprised me is that they make quick trips -- there were only 3 different helicopters in flight at the time we watched, but they came very frequently -- sometimes two at once. There wasn't more than a minute or two of time between at least one of them dropping down to fill up. I've learned that there are two different types of fire fighting helicopters -- one has a hanging bucket that they dip into the water and carry to the fire. The other has a hose that sucks the water into a tank in the belly of the chopper. Apparently these hold a lot more water. They take longer to fill up -- the bucket ones pretty much dip and run. It's a quick cycle.