John & Anne Wiley

Only $60 for triple the drive space on my Macbook, so with the original drive nearly full from all our photos I finally went for it. Only took 15 minutes to make a “clone” backup of the original drive, install the new one, and another half hour or so to clone everything onto the new drive. So easy, and everything worked perfectly once these steps were completed. With one exception: my email didn’t work. Turns out my email app has been “improved” with features that made it choke and die on a larger but otherwise identical drive. It’s finally working again (and better in some ways), so enough whining. 🙂

Yesterday we took a friend flying for his birthday, so I’ve been spreading words & pix around (see links to Edhat & my Photo Page at the right). Here are a few more that I saved to put here to mark my return to Cyberia.

2962 SBCC & Harbor

In case you’re wondering, yes another focus of my attention lately has been the “C4” movement to elect Haslund, Blum, Croninger & Macker to replace the incompetent SBCC Board of Trustees incumbents (see http://citizens4sbcc.org/). I didn’t think about disk drives at all during this flight, but did think about our candidates when flying past this beautiful campus of the college we loved even before Anne’s work there. She once had an office in one of the two buildings at the right end of the grassy area on the left.

Heading back to land at SBA after our tour of SB & Montecito we got an unusual routing from ATC that put us high over Ellings Park, so I snapped this.

3012 Ellings Park

Just out of frame to the right is where paragliders launch. They fly across a road to soar back and forth along the bluffs at the Douglas Family Preserve, named to honor Kirk Douglas and son Michael who matched the large number of donations from the community to buy and save this popular open space. Many locals still call it “The Wilcox” as it was known before. Just below it is Arroyo Burro beach, very popular with locals. Many still call it “Hendry’s” as it was known before. When we first moved to SB it took a while to find places due to this dual naming system. 🙂

3015 Santa Cruz Island

After we passed over the beach and turned West along the shoreline toward the airport I snapped this view of the stunningly clear islands. Wish the camera didn’t somehow show haze we didn’t see, because this was so beautiful we talked about flying out to tour the islands.

OK, so now that I’m back maybe soon I’ll post more pix from the flight to SD and flights since. Also might be fun to share some from the recent C4 events we’ve attended like the one at Diandra Douglas’ estate (once home of Michael). After the election we’ll need to take another long trip to celebrate having more time!

Something about the sea attracts people. I used to get really strong urges to visit the beach if I hadn’t seen it for a while (like when I lived far from it). When we first moved to Santa Barbara, we went to the beach daily. Just standing there staring at it, or walking along the sand, wading, splashing, sitting and listening to the heartbeat of surf… Everything about the beach was nourishing, healing and refreshing to us.

Not so much now. We still enjoy all those things, but often just glancing at the sea while driving around town seems to instantly provide enough of all that. Occasionally we’ll go out on Stearn’s Wharf which of course provides all but the sandy feet, and we rarely actually visit the beach.

2087 Lunging Seaward

Maybe this sense of oceanic fulfillment is why looking at this home makes me wonder what it’s like there during a major storm. How would it fare standing up to a rogue wave? If I were standing there as a tsunami approached, what would I do? OK, in case I haven’t ruined it for you I also like to imagine sleeping on that balcony. 🙂

2114 Another Plane

About a minute later we noticed another plane, this time going in the opposite direction but again quite a safe distance. Still, I was glad that my policy is to fly higher and further from shore where it’s that extra bit safer. Past the La Piedra  and just before the El Matador State Beach is an extra unusual building, presumably a home.

2126 Gaudi Beach

The curved walls appear somewhat Gaudi-esque. I wonder if it was built organically over time, with the location and orientation designed to best handle prevailing winds and weather with good sunsets while providing shade. Sea Level Drive on the outskirts of Malibu goes out to the small promontory where this imposing structure surveys the sea:

2154 West Malibu Gate

Quite a view they have of the ocean, plus much of Malibu stretching to the East from here. Sort of a guardian or observer of all that transpires in this area. Past the Malibu West Swimming Club (and the market I always thought of as downtown Malibu), some pretty amazing estates occupy the high ground.

2187 High Ground

Looking at a map though, Kanan Dume Rd. is more the center of Malibu, and this is probably my first photo of Point Dume. Somehow I didn’t associate this name reminiscent of Tolkien, with the heart of Malibu.

2207 Point Dume

Lots of imposing homes all along these shores of course, and this neighborhood East of Dume has an interesting collection. I like the sound of that phrase, East of Dume.

2219 East of Dume

I guess the name adds a lot to property values or something, because you’ll see Malibu associated with quite a long stretch of beach for miles on either side of Dume (I can’t stop playing with that name). Near the Pepperdine campus is the less-populated area of Malibu Lagoon, presumably named before lots of lots were sold.

2319 Malibu Lagoon

In fact, miles further East looking back at this lagoon in the distance from near Moonshadows and Las Tunas State Beach you’ll still find some Malibu references before it finally yields after one last restaurant at the base of Topanga Canyon. So the area of this photo could be called East Malibu even though Pt. Dume is far out of frame beyond the lagoon in the hazy distance.

2325 East Malibu

Airspace got busier from here on (flew the fun & easy “LA Special” corridor directly over LAX yet again), so I didn’t snap any more pix until Long Beach. Wonder if I’ll share some of those and on to San Diego, or maybe just shift to our more recent flight moving Tripp home from our Fog Stop at Santa Ynez the next evening.