The Southwest Boeing 737-700 was parked right next to some awesome planes.

This weekend was super busy, but beyond exciting. I was invited to join Southwest Airlines on their special flight from Midway Airport (MDW), in Chicago to the big AirVenture in Oshkosh, WI (OSH). How could I say no to that opportunity?

I got to meet so many awesome people that I have interacted with on Twitter, that I haven’t been able to meet in person. Some, who work for Southwest but many who also do not. Our flight leaving from MDW was leaving at 7am, so it was an early morning but worth it. The Boeing 737-700 was only about half full and it is always awesome to be on a flight with no “real” passengers but with airline employees, media and a few invited guests. The flight from MDW to OSH is the shortest flight I have been on with a Boeing 737 — only about 30 minutes. Enough time to take off, level out and back down again. Since there were no passengers, they were able to leave the cockpit door open, so we could go up and say “hi” while in mid-flight. When’s the last time anyone has been able to do that on scheduled service?

How many times can you see this view outside a Boeing 737 window?

The cloud level was low and we were able to come down below the clouds well before landing, skimming just over the water. We arrived to OSH to many people lined up and waving from the sidelines, it was very cool. Then we were towed from the taxi way, through the ground, feet from DC3’s and other amazing planes to the center of the Aeroshell Square, where a lot of cool planes are being displayed. Being pulled along with hundreds of people waving and stopping behind a C-5, next to a DC-7 and FA-18 is pretty surreal.

I felt like someone famous coming off the aircraft. I felt very lucky that a blog reader @IKluft was happy to show me and a few others around for the day. He was at AirVenture all week and was well versed with the best plane locations (thanks Ian!).

Talk about airplane nerd heaven. I don’t even know how to describe all the amazing airplanes, events and people that were at AirVenture. I guess a picture is worth a thousand words and I have quite a few pictures and a few videos to share:

* My photos I took during the day
* Time-lapse video landing at Oshkosh
* Time-lapse video of C-17 doors closing
* Photos from @ImperfectSense
* Photos from @bradc314
I will be adding more in the next few days as well…