Spring offers some bright days when the mountains beckon us to fly. Usually when the mountains are crisp and clear, there are scenes like this waiting down at Goleta Beach when we take off.
0284 Crisp Colors
The air can become almost invisible, and the full brightness of Santa Barbara colors sparkles from sea to peaks. On this day we got a “downwind” departure. That means we did the usual takeoff for small planes, heading out over the water between Goleta Pier and UCSB, but instead of flying further offshore we turned and headed back past the airport to the freeway before turning East toward the harbor. So this puts us closer to the mountains that coaxed us into the clear air.
0288 Mountain View
This view of the mountains, before we reached Hwy.154, has a variety of places we enjoy. At the bottom-right is part of the creek trail from Tucker’s Grove Park up to Hwy.154 where it climbs up to a gravel parking area. Up on the slope above where you can see the highway cutting up toward the left is Painted Cave. Once we reached the harbor, the study in blue that had greeted us at takeoff presented this new panorama.
0315 Wavy Blue
The clear air has great powers to clear the mind, briefly lifting the veil between seeing and being.
John & Anne Wiley 
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