Life has many delights, and we’ve been enjoying a bounty. Dear friend Julie is here, and we took her flying again as a followup to her short tour of the valley between Stanley & Smiley Creek, ID. This time it was over an hour slowly wandering the skies above the Santa Barbara area. Afterward she said, “I’ve moved from survival to enjoyment.” Quite a rapid shift, given that she was scared of flying before these two delightful jaunts.
We also delighted in the flight from San Diego to SB last week. Passing the Mt. Soledad area where Anne’s family lived years ago, La Jolla and the Shores looked especially colorful.
6785 La Jolla Delight
In the “Every Flight, Different Delight” department, this time we went high. Usually either 3,500′ or 4,500′ is our altitude crossing the LA airspace, and our route is Queen Mary in Long Beach Harbor to Santa Monica. This time we were at 10,500′ and well offshore past San Pedro, where we got a view better than this pic shows of Catalina.
6796 Catalina Delight
Then we turned North to cross toward Laguna Beach, and got a whole new look at the point we usually see only in the distance.
6798 Palos Verdes Delight
In this zoomed view you can make out the lighthouse, and the ocean bottom contour that makes for a fluffy margin along the shore.
6801 Light Delight
Even the LA Basin was a delight, since we could see the whole towering city and its less tall siblings like Sherman Oaks and Santa Monica and the mountains beyond.
6817 LA Delight
Before long we delighted in the rock outcrops near Camarillo, with Pt. Mugu and Port Hueneme drawing our eye to the Channel Islands beyond.
6824 Camarillo Delight
It’s boring when I keep saying that after flying every state and province in North America we most enjoy Santa Barbara, but here it is again. It was especially delightful to quietly descend from our high transit past the harbor, and feel our hearts swell with love of Our Town.
6880 SB Delight
John & Anne Wiley 
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