We started falling in love with the Tri-Cities. This year's event is Filbin's first in charge. She has a list of goals that include rebuilding sponsorships and offsetting last year's ticket sale losses from a blistering heat wave. Several new events should keep spectators entertained between hydroplane heats or air show stunts, including the Battle of the Bands and the Sky Ski water-skiing act. You can take the kids.
Some people have a hard time with that.
But we have done the work we needed to do to make this a family event. Columbia Park isn't the way it was 15 years ago, she said, referring to the wild party atmosphere of old. Give us another shot and judge for yourselves. Interests expanded from hydroplanes to wine tasting. It was 212 years ago, during a spring barrel tasting at a Tri-City winery, when Filbin and her husband decided to move, she recalled.