Take a look at this photo from 7/4/06 and try to guess what we’re thinking about doing tonight. Hint, click on the pic to see the largest version, and take note of the area to the right of the white firework burst.
0061 July 4, 2006 Perspective
In case you’re wondering, this was taken from the SBCC East Campus overlook that had been recently spiffed up. We’d gone there several years before, and even then a small crowd was taking advantage of that vantage point.
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
Note: this is the eastern shore of El Capitan State Beach.
Today we celebrated the joy of our first “official” flight alone together (the day I earned my license 7/2/06), by flying our friend Joy to celebrate her birthday. As the date portended, it was a joyful flight! Shorter than we planned, due to minor delays getting aloft and major winds once we reached Gaviota Pass. So rather than climb above the turbulence and fly too far above earth to most richly enjoy it, we stayed low along the coast in the lee of the mountains for a leisurely return to SBA.
7566 Oil Seeps
There were some oil seeps close to shore, and later we saw an intense “red tide” as reported in my post about the flight on Edhat.com (see the right column link here for more of my posts there).
7581 Pass Pad
Just to the west of Gaviota Pass is a concrete pad and three green tanks, as if someone is planning to build a home or perhaps park a modular home there. We had planned to fly out and look for whales at Point Conception (barely visible in the distance), but we’ll try again another day.
7577 Dolphin Phun
We had a lot of “phun” watching several different dolphin feeding activites. In this one you can see that some of them swim on their backs, and how closely involved the pelicans get. I’ve posted a few more pix from the flight on my Photo Page, so click on the link in the column at the right to see those.
Summer solstice has already come and gone this year, but the Santa Barbara celebration is tomorrow and Ventura has already had a wildfire. Flying to Santa Paula with a friend, we saw the hilltop “Two Trees” fire.
7203 Two Trees Fire 3:40pm
This view is toward Oxnard, and you can make out a truck and fire crew between the trees. Coming home to SBA we flew along the freeway near Ventura and caught this aircraft fire retardant drop looking in the opposite direction.
7214 Air Drop 4:18pm
If you click to see the largest version, you might make out what looks like someone standing on the ridge below where the aircraft is. Also a fire crew standing on the ridge to the right of the drop zone, above the puff of white smoke.
As we descended over town toward the airport, it was fun to see a part of Summer much happier than the start of fire season: preparations for the Santa Barbara Solstice Parade that ends at Alameda Park.
7258 Alameda Park Solstice Setup
Tomorrow these streets will be packed with floats from the parade and the park will be overflowing with festive costumes, live music, and at least one drum circle with happy dancers.
John & Anne Wiley 
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