John & Anne Wiley

2011/10/03

Cruiser

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,People,Random,SB Region — John @ 02:22

Today we took a quick flight over town, and enjoyed seeing the Sapphire Princess cruise ship anchored outside the harbor. The whole town seemed livelier, and like us the boaters had something extra to look at. I like how it complements our magnificent shoreline.

6536 Princess Cruise

6536 Princess Cruise

When we went offshore the mountains almost looked snow-capped, with the fluffy clouds beyond.

6419 Alaska Reminder

6419 Alaska Reminder

It reminded us of a memorable Alaska cruise one of our relatives treated the family to a few years ago, except the beaches are notably better for water sports. Looking down at the ship we noted the golf course.

6452 Floating Golf

6452 Floating Golf

As you can see, we flew clear around it and the setting was equally beautiful in every direction.

6463 Princess & Mesa

6463 Princess & Mesa

On our way back to the airport, I looked back one last time and imagined what the ship looks like from a kayak.

6539 Three Boats

6539 Three Boats

If you click to see the largest version, you can make out the orange kayak at the right lower edge. The sailboat on top is looking at a floating mountain too. From up here you can see the ship’s outdoor activity areas, and think about how crowded those are when they’re at sea.

2011/10/01

Higher Math

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Nature,Random,SB Region — John @ 02:49

You don’t need a college degree, but it helps. You can get them here, as Molly can attest.

6250 Slough & UCSB

6250 Slough & UCSB

So here’s the math problem. You’re in a plane leaving Santa Barbara going North to Santa Ynez and you pass an Amtrak train that is Southbound.

6257 Amtrak at DP Beach

6257 Amtrak at DP Beach

OK, you may have already figured out the answer: I’m messing with you. Though the train is Southbound, it’s actually going East because of our coastline here and we were flying West out of SBA before turning toward Santa Ynez. But it serves to illustrate the sort of higher math I’m really talking about: Anne + John + Tripp = way too much fun. 🙂

2011/09/30

Go Team

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,People,Random,Relationships,SB Region — John @ 07:55

Flying past Bishop Garcia Diego High lately I’ve several times noticed football practice, so this time I snapped the fascinating diorama of tiny figures running around chasing a ball that’s invisible from the air. The movement is fun to watch, if you’re lucky enough to see a play. As someone observed, football is endless committee meetings punctuated by brief periods of violence. In other words, chances are they’re most often all standing around or in a huddle when we fly past. When I looked at the snap, it had missed the play but did catch some essence you might enjoy.

6237 Miniature Football

6237 Miniature Football

Now you may have noticed that I rarely put large images here, instead putting those on our Photo Page. But this triggered more words from me than those do, and seemed more suited to this venue. So I’m curious if anyone will be curious enough to click this pic and see the larger version. You can make out several things going on, and one you could look for is the coach just above the team on the right. Like the quarterback juggling the ball, he seems to be watching the cheerleaders at the top right. 🙂

OK, Anne sez you have to click twice so the text goes away, and again if you need to zoom in, but still can’t really make those details out. So here’s a higher resolution crop of that pic, and if you click this you can probably more clearly see what people are doing.

6237 Closer Look

6237 Closer Look

 

2011/09/29

Castles

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,People,Random,SB Region — John @ 08:57

One of the many things I enjoy about flying, is seeing what people do with their homes. Sometimes a business will really stand out from the air, but more often it’s homes that display creativity and/or wealth clearly visible from a quarter mile up. This estate for example.

6199 Montecito Money

6199 Montecito Money

It’s such a magnificent place, and I like the pond in particular. I wouldn’t want to live there, but it’s easy to understand how plenty of people could yearn for that. The setting is great too, close to the amenities of  Montecito Village.

6205 Montecito Village to Ventura

6205 Montecito Village to Ventura

Hope Ranch has some really impressive mansions too of course, but I like how this “village” on the opposite side of Santa Barbara still has some relatively modest homes. People whose families have lived there for generations before it sprouted some estates of the uber rich. If I had unlimited funds and wanted to spend extravagantly on a house, what would I create? Each one is so different, and like admiring beauties like that first one it’s endlessly fascinating for me to watch them being built.

6203 Future Fantasy

6203 Future Fantasy

Adding to our fun flying this part of town was spotting Pierre LaFond where we’d just bought a cookie. It’s nice that we can still afford to buy something in this part of town. 🙂

6207 Fav Cookie

6207 Fav Cookie

Pierre’s is at the top of the pic, and though I prefer Anne’s exceptional oatmeal cookies and Molly’s insanely great chocolate chip, the best store-bought cookies are here. It’s a great place to sit and enjoy a cookie and a cup of coffee when we’re not home with much healthier home-baked goodies. As for my castle, it would have a glass turret and countless other quirky additions but it would all easily fit in the garage of most estates. It would have no more than three bedrooms with small attached bathrooms, and a low maintenance xeriscape yard. After setting aside funds for flying and some travel, the rest would go to making the world a better place. What would you do with the funds of the top one percent?

2011/09/27

Scenes

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Nature,Random,SB Region — John @ 18:39

The seasonal sunsets have begun, and we enjoyed this one from a nearby hill where we paused on a walk to admire the light and color. Noticing the gathering colors as we left the house, we’d talked about bringing a camera. Luckily this cellphone pic came out passably well as a memento of a magical moment together.

9/25 Sunset Phone Pic

9/25 Sunset Phone Pic

Had we brought a better camera, you could get a clearer look at the glowing virga that made this scene extra magical.

Our 9/22 flight included a scene that evokes toy sailboats in a pond. These are the small single-person craft that seem to often gather in a frenetic cluster offshore, but this time they were just outside the harbor.

6184 Toy Boats

6184 Toy Boats

From the air, this tumult of turning boats is great fun to watch. Maybe we should try to get video some time.

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