John & Anne Wiley

2011/10/23

To Slo

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,People,Random,SB Region — John @ 17:30

One of the first things you learn about flying is how to fly slow, and what happens if you fly too slow. So tho too slow can be bad, a little slow can be quite good. But what happens when you fly a little slow to SLO? If you’re flying along the coast from the North, you see stuff like this beautiful old bridge on the Pacific Coast Highway.

7228 PCH Bridge

7228 PCH Bridge

When you reach Morro Bay you can see from Morro Rock along the string of her sister peaks to SLO.

7316 Mo to SLO

7316 Mo to SLO

San Luis Obispo has some slow and easy qualities, so its initials SLO seem to fit except when the students from Cal Poly bring their energy to the streets. With the beaches under a sleepy blanket, we decided to turn inland the few miles and pass closer to SLO. The gentle turn gave us a different glimpse of Morro Bay through an opening in the cloud.

7323 Morro Bay Shroud

7323 Morro Bay Shroud

Then we got a clearer view of the sister peaks with Cal Poly and SLO in the distance.

7332 Sisters to SLO

7332 Sisters to SLO

So flying the good kind of slow can bring a good kind of glow as Tripp’s warm hum and stout wings roll this beautiful planet beneath our wide eyes.

2011/10/22

To Sur w/Love

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Nature,People,Random,SB Region — John @ 08:45

Perusing more pix from our flight home along Big Sur from San Jose I picked out three more to share. First up is the Nepenthe hood. When we stop in there on our drives along this scenic coast, it seems to be just a few rustic commercial buildings and I’ve wondered how far people drive to their jobs in the shops and eateries there. Well, some might actually walk judging by this pic.

7174 Nepenthe Hood

7174 Nepenthe Hood

This neighborhood includes an extended area with lots of homes you just don’t see from the road. Every ridge line is dotted with them, and more are probably nestled in the treed valleys too. Nepenthe itself is on the small peak just left of the straight stretch of road visible in the upper middle of the pic. Maybe there’s a trail down the steep creek bed that opens onto the beach. At the upper right of the green meadow above the beach you can make out the area of this next pic. Looks to me like some sort of open air retreat center, but maybe it’s just a really cool ranch house.

7177 Retreat Ranch?

7177 Retreat Ranch?

We’ve had many contacts with people involved in the Esalen community for decades, but only driven in part way one time. So it was difficult to spot from the air until I looked it up on a gMaps satellite view. This pic makes me want to go and explore it more. Maybe even make a workshop proposal and spend some time there.

7215 Esalen

7215 Esalen

As with Nepenthe, there’s a relatively big hidden community around it, including across the creek outlet at the bottom-left of the pic. I’ve yet to discover an airport on the Big Sur coast, but it wouldn’t help much anyway given that the weather there is so often unsuited to our kind of flying. We’ve flown to Monterey and taken the inexpensive bus, but it turns around before Esalen. We could also fly to SLO or Paso and rent a car, but that only shaves 1.5 hours off the drive time from home and so far we haven’t done it. Looking at these pix sure has me thinking about it again tho.

2011/10/21

Flashback

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,People,Random,Relationships — John @ 07:23

I’m in a sentimental mood, remembering past family times as I look at more pix from our flight from San Diego family to San Jose family. We passed over Lake Nacimiento on the way, and I remembered trying to drive a car up a dirt path I’d taken down to the shore.

6908 Lake Holiday

6908 Lake Holiday

It was on the left bank at the bottom, and my Dad was sitting and watching from the right bank. The episode ended with the car’s clutch burned out and a kind 4wd owner towing it up. Seems like another lifetime, that holiday weekend at the lake only a couple of decades ago.

As sunset approached we passed the airport at Hollister where there’s this family fun farm with pumpkin patch, go cart track, and other attractions including a giant maze.

6919 Fly-In Memories

6919 Fly-In Memories

Most families probably drive there, but there must be some who fly in and walk over to the farm. Regardless of how they arrive, some of those who go will be remembering their family time and how they thought it would go on forever.

It’s always interesting to see another aircraft when we’re flying, because most of the time they’re only distant dots. So when ATC pointed this helicopter and Tripp out to each other near Morgan Hill, I had to snap it. Having just passed another family fun pumpkin patch place, it looked like a flying pumpkin flying

6949 Flying Pumpkin

6949 Flying Pumpkin

along the old Monterey Highway we drove when I was a small child in the back seat watching telephone wires seeming to sweep rhythmically up and down as we droned past. One night I heard the whistle of a steam train, and all those sensations are now mingled into this flashback that will soon be forgotten forever. How long before even our most vivid recent and delicious flying memories fade into darkness?

2011/10/20

More Home

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,People,Random,Relationships,SB Region — John @ 03:26

We’re feeling more Home than usual tonight. We flew to San Diego to bring Dad back for a visit, and our place feels so filled with Family! Having been a pilot in WWII he of course loves to fly, so that adds to our fun too. There were low clouds along the coast, so we detoured via El Monte rather than our usual route along the coast. That coupled with smog, higher than usual altitude and afternoon sun made it so hazy I didn’t snap a single pic! I do have one to share of our departure past the Stevens Bridge, which as you may recall is our favored driving route into town because when crossing we vote on the best view (mountains or coast, and mountains usually win). We enjoy looking down at the pathetic view it offers when flying past like this, because from Tripp the view is almost always spectacular in every direction.

7392 Leaving Home

7392 Leaving Home

So anyway, here’s a glance toward the bridge where the two cars currently on the span are probably oblivious to our passing. I’m guessing that because we often pull over to let the traffic go by before crossing the bridge just below the speed limit. I wonder if anyone else actually takes the time to enjoy those views from the bridge, because most seem quite intent on getting somewhere. Maybe it’s unusual how thoroughly we enjoy our beautiful Home.

2011/10/19

Groups

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,People,Random,Relationships,SB Region — John @ 06:20

I chose three more pix from our SJ->SB flight for posting, and got curious what theme connects them. Maybe you’ll see something different, but what I see in common is groups. First the groups of people who jump out of perfectly good airplanes.

7079 Skydivers

7079 Skydivers

Rather than a leisurely descent to take in the sights after their free fall, these two seemed to be in a hurry to get down as they corkscrewed toward the beach to more quickly lose altitude. Guess the fun part for them is the fall. Next is a shot that includes groups of people enjoying the beach at Big Sur, some perhaps unaware of how dramatic the seaward side of those rocks are.

7149 Rugged Rocks

7149 Rugged Rocks

Last up is the groups of gulls gathered near the falls at Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park as if they’re somehow fascinated by the sight or sound. Maybe it provides food or fresh water for them?

7194 Gulls Just Wanna Have Fun

7194 Gulls Just Wanna Have Fun

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