John & Anne Wiley

2011/03/11

Channel Islands

Filed under: Aviation,by Anne,Flying,Has Photos,SB Region — Anne @ 10:00

I need to go through some of my SNOW photos from our White North trip, but for now I’m entranced with being home.  For us this week it included a trip out to the Channel Islands.  I like this photo from the south side of Santa Rosa for the force of the swirls on land and water.

1753 Santa Rosa Cove shapes

1753 Santa Rosa Cove shapes

Land configurations are quite different on each of the islands.  As we were cruisin’ over the many rolling mountains of Cruz, I noticed a canyon that runs pretty much lengthwise down the center.  There were also portions of red Sedona-like rocks at varied places, like on the bottom right corner of this photo.

1785 Cruz Canyon

1785 Cruz Canyon

Lovely day of flying!

~by Anne

2011/03/10

Dreams

We had a very active day today. In our dreams. We didn’t even go outside, being content to watch some PBS, throw open the windows for a while for air and light, and nap a lot. There’s some mixture in our dreams, of the invigorating Winter we enjoyed up North and the bucolic Summer (78F) here today. It looked a lot like yesterday, as in this shot back at the airport, UCSB and Our Town after we turned toward the islands.

5947 Idyllic Shores

5947 Idyllic Shores

I didn’t notice until later that the camera was set to maximum “ISO” speed, so until snapping San Miguel Island the pix are all a bit messed up. Still, hopefully you get the idea. Here’s another view, from far offshore looking back.

5968 View Back at SB

5968 View Back at SB

Then there was the view East along the island chain past San Miguel, with the coast from Santa Barbara to Ventura in the distance. Wish you could see it more the way we did, but again maybe this gives you some idea.

6043 San Miguel & Beyond

6043 San Miguel & Beyond

I take a deep breath looking at that. So many scenes like this permeate our dreams, after only a few years of flying. Wonder what my dreams would be like if I’d begun flying in high school as I so yearned to do back then…

2011/03/09

SB Delights

Today dawned warm, clear and calm after winds yesterday, so my guess was it would make for good flying. I love being right. 🙂

Taking off on runway 25, UCSB shone with a crisp island garnish that evoked gasps from the flood of colors caressing our Winter eyes. We’re solidly back in the verdant land of Spring!

5917 UCSB Spring

5917 UCSB Spring

We decided to fly out and visit the Channel Islands, but mostly just toured San Miguel after we decided to go back sometime soon and maybe take a friend.

6008 San Miguel Stripes

6008 San Miguel Stripes

Descending toward San Miguel after climbing to 8,000 for the crossing, the sandy stripes stood out as Santa Rosa slipped into the mist. I liked how the waves were crashing on the tiny rock islet off the West tip of San Miguel.

6017 Water Meets Stone

6017 Water Meets Stone

Oh, the colors! 🙂

We took hundreds of pix, and maybe we’ll share more after looking through them, but there’s one more I have to share because it resonates with our strong feelings of Home. Descending serenely over SB after an exceptional flight, I noticed the bucolic outdoor farmer’s market. People strolling around in shorts under gently waving street banners with the sweet sounds of street musicians wafting among the quiet conversations. Much as I was enjoying still being aloft, part of me was riding that electric trolley just turning back onto Altered State Street at the top of the frame after the detour around the two blocks closed for the market. So delicious to me, it’s almost unbearable!

6168 Altered State Farmer's Market

6168 Altered State Farmer's Market

2011/03/08

Here & Back

 

Snug in our home, it’s tempting to just cozy in for a few days. It’s probably good that we’ve had little errands to take care of around town, because getting out helps us feel even more here. Among today’s stops was a nostalgic visit to Tripp, since strong winds were forecast and we wanted to check her tiedown lines. Walking back to our fun and friendly FBO (Atlantic) we paused to admire the new KSBA terminal building that’s gone from a frame to a building shell in the month we were gone.

1741 New KSBA Terminal

1741 New KSBA Terminal

If you click to see the larger version, you can make out the copper balls astride the main entrance that complement the copper dome atop the building. When we left for Edmonton, that dome was shiny copper and now it’s already wearing a “penny patina.”

Looking further back, I found more pix from the trip home to share. First our quick tour of Spokane on our morning drive back to the airport.

5817 Snow Remnant

5817 Snow Remnant

Guess I’m used to beauty, because the thing I noticed most looking at this just now is that tiny lump of snow at Anne’s feet. Such a contrast to where we’d been the day before! This was the first of several bridges we paused to look at in downtown Spokane, that make it such a river-connected city. This bridge crosses just below a power plant and striking rapids, with a great view of several more bridges upstream.

5819 Water Power

5819 Water Power

Here’s another view of that bridge, from a little upstream. On the large version you can see the gondola rides that are probably great for people with no access to small planes, or who just like being close to white water while keeping dry. I wonder if the windows get all covered with the spray, since it got on my lens when I walked out on the bridge.

5825 Gondolas Under Bridge

5825 Gondolas Under Bridge

Just a little further upstream there’s another view we liked, that offers an eclectic mix of things to look at. We hoped to find the bridge that’s in the moving last scene of the film Smoke Signals, with a version of Dick Lourie’s powerful “Forgiving Our Fathers” poem that evokes for me so many feelings and memories about my father and daughter.

5826 River City

5826 River City

Standing on this spot I felt closest to what spoke to me in that film. Protected by the broken fence with my feet in the slumbering grass of generations. Just a few minutes later, the kind folks at the main airport’s Tower let us get amazing views of the same spots. Slivers of the moment captured above still lingered when we were above it moments later. There is a magic about flying that simultaneously remembers a mouse in that grass and a hawk in the sky.

5833 Spokane's Heart

5833 Spokane's Heart

I love how the bridges radiate out from the small island, as if connecting the entire world to the secret heart of this magnificent city.

5861 City Surround

5861 City Surround

I’d thought of Spokane as a small city, but it stretches for miles in every direction. Well, enough for tonight. Tomorrow I’ll look for some interesting snaps from our flight toward San Jose.

2011/03/07

Lucky Path

Going over photos from our flight to Spokane, we recall both the gradual shift from “black and white” frozen landscapes to color and our good fortune. The water at Sandpoint, ID was starting to thaw, and hints of color appeared. You might notice also the fuzzy skies in the distance, that kept us continually alert to our flight. Several times as the skies grew more fuzzy like this we considered turning back, landing at an airport, or continuing. Maybe it was just the slight difference made by cars and trucks on the highways we followed, but we were always able to comfortably continue even though sometimes the skies on either side were more overcast.

5810 Sandpoint Idaho

5810 Sandpoint Idaho

The patterns in the ice were intricately beautiful, but we were glad that skies continued to improve ahead so we didn’t need to stop there and wait for more Spring-like weather. The route we’d flown North through Boise, Helena and Lethbridge would have been blocked by low clouds.  We’re happy to have chosen the correct path home, and to have left on a good day for the flight.

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