John & Anne Wiley

2010/07/29

Sault Ste. Marie – the Mighty Locks

Filed under: by Anne,Has Photos,NxNW Adventure — Anne @ 04:27

In the great Displays at the museum I learned a few things (John did a great explanation of how the Locks actually work) & these stood out:

If all the water in the 5 Great Lakes was spread across the U.S., the entire surface of the country would be under nine & a half feet of water.  That’s a LOT of water.

The size of the longest freighters going through the Locks are 1,000 feet long, just 250 feet shorter than the Empire State Building.  Here’s a photo of Part of one Lock:

0017 part of a Lock

0017 part of a Lock

The Locks are Very protected because of their economic importance.  In fact, a guard went through my purse to check for guns before we could enter the museum.

2010/07/28

Soo x 2

Filed under: by Anne,Flying,NxNW Adventure,Random — Anne @ 16:19

Hi – this is Anne and I thought I’d make a little entry,  to add another voice to our experiences.  So many things occur to me, so maybe this will be a start for me.

Currently we’re in Sault (pronounced Soo) Ste. Marie in MI. It stands for the Rapids of St. Mary. John had heard of this place while living in Canada, so he was curious to check it out.  We discovered there are two towns, two sides of the border.  – a city name and border shared by the U.S. and Canada.  When we set our destination mid-air with ATC they asked if we were going to “American Soo” or “Canadian Soo” 🙂

We’ve been camping for 4 nights, so last night we checked in to the “Soo Locks” hotel,  a lovely place – took a long-awaited shower, and then a soak in the jacuzzi which is in the bedroom! Hair washed, ahhh, and clean all over, we’re sitting in the room catching up.  We decided to stay here another night, not camp, and rest up before taking off.  The weather was a factor in that decision.

We hear there are Locks – I always enjoyed seeing the ones in Seattle when I lived there, and the charming one in Paris we saw last April with Molly – so we’ll go see them.  A cool thing about these is that they shift water levels between 3 of the Great Lakes (Michigan, Huron and Superior), in one meeting place here in Soo.

I’d love to see a comment from you on the Blog if you’re so inclined.  A little down on the right hand side is also a place you can put your email address that will let you know when a new entry is posted.

We’re off to the Locks, and prior to that heading over to the lunch that is evidently every Wednesday at the small airport where we landed.  That’ll be  a great way to find out more about this lil’ place from locals (who also fly)…

~Anne

2010/07/06

The Fireworks Begin!

Filed under: Aviation,by Anne,Flying,Has Photos,Random,SB Region — Anne @ 00:17

I took this just as the show began. It shows the Fireworks in relation to the twinkling city lights and mountains.  What an amazing night that was for us, and though the photos are so fun to view after the fact, seeing these 3-D in the air was Wondrous! ~Anne

1223 Fireworks in context

1223 Fireworks in context

2010/07/03

Big Red Tide

Filed under: Aviation,by Anne,Flying,Has Photos,Nature,Random — Anne @ 08:38

I was amazed at the amount of red tide we saw today.  We have seen red tide from the air before, but never near this amount. ~ Anne

1204-Big Red Tide

1204-Big Red Tide

Note: this is the eastern shore of El Capitan State Beach.

2010/06/24

Right Seat

Filed under: Aviation,by Anne,Flying,Has Photos,Nature,People,SB Region — Anne @ 00:20

I have some photos today.  This one of the point at UCSB was taken on 6-20 as we flew – John’s Father’s Day choice 🙂 – up the coast.  The context for the first two was “UCSB without Molly” – the campus looks different with her in Paris.  I appreciate how much more connected I feel to the campus from her having been here, and even more so with the graduation activities. Got a closer sense of the warm community life in IV as well.  So here is the Campus Point with students enjoying the beach:

0997 UCSB Campus Pt. beach

0997 UCSB Campus Pt. beach

This is a few seconds later.

0998 UCSB & SBA from Coast

0998 UCSB & SBA from Coast

Then this from the same flight, on the return.  I loved the clouds along the edge of the coast, and especially this view with the sliver of mountain top peeking through.  This looks toward Vandenburg from the valley between Lompoc and Buellton.

1017 Clouds peeking

1017 Clouds peeking

John’s encouraged me to post – thank you John!

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