John & Anne Wiley

2015/09/09

Whale of a Time

Filed under: Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,Random,Relationships,SB Region — John @ 00:17

There’s usually a time delay between one of our adventures, and getting organized to share some of it with you in a post here. Sometimes weeks even! So I’m glad to have caught a few minutes to share this expansion of my earlier Edhat post. Arriving at L52 we were treated to this whale feeding frenzy less than a mile offshore from the airport. We’ve never seen this “thrash feed” technique before.

9398 Thrash Feed

9398 Thrash Feed

Amazing to see them strategically working so effectively together. The top whale surfaced and blew first, rolling almost 90° to the left and thrashing left with a powerful tail fluke thrust to lunge suddenly to the right and down into the dense school of frightened fish. Then it blew out air to further freak the fish and drive some toward the lower whale in this pic (to its left).

9406 Thrash Feed

9406 Thrash Feed

That second whale then did the same maneuver and probably caught more fish while at the right you can see the effect their splashes had on the gathered birds who’d been picking off fish driven to the surface. Another technique was to swim at each other through a line of fish (darker area of the water) with an offset like this.

9430 Lancer Charge

9430 Lancer Charge

A solo method in deeper water was to come up from below and then dive back down into the school, a little more like the method used by pelicans. The tiny white dots seem to be fish driven to the surface.

9442 Dinner Diving

9442 Dinner Diving

We saw a use of bubble netting like this next group of four whales, and liked how birds in front of them scattered for safety while those behind converged for scraps.

9397 Bubble Net

9397 Bubble Net

Fascinating and thrilling to watch all these fishing techniques from a safe distance!

9388 Bubble Harvest

9388 Bubble Harvest

Sometimes a bird would venture too close and be surprised by the sudden plume of mist from a whale’s blow, as in this sequence.

9468 Bird Bath

9468 Bird Bath

In addition to a few seals and dolphins and innumerable birds, this scene had also attracted much cheering and shouting from the big holiday gathering on the beach as we learned after landing. But my fave pix of this amazing experience are of what looks to me like a pregnant female, who took a more sedate approach to collecting a few of the slower fish in the massive school.

9438 Quiet Snack

9438 Quiet Snack

I especially love the reflective mood of this one with ripples shimmering into the depths.

9418 Quiet Depth

9418 Quiet Depth

2015/09/03

Special Day

Filed under: Aviation,Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,People,Random,SB Region — John @ 07:19

In recent years every day has been charmed. Today somehow we dialed the enchantment up a notch. This afternoon we flew to the sweet little community around Oceano Airport (aka L52).

8842 L52 Community

8842 L52 Community

This is the sweetest little town! Once we flew there just to pick up a video at that branch of our regional library (we turned it in here at our branch). We did very much want to watch it (whatever it was), but mostly it was an excuse to fly there. As you can see, we can walk from where we park Tripp by the white square building near top-center, left across the bridge over the lovely slough where migrating birds hang out, and in another block we’re on the beach at the bottom-left. This is where people can drive their vast assortment of RVs, ATVs, dirt bikes, bicycles and assorted other vehicles right on the beach and up into the large sand dunes. Straight up off the top of the pic a block is Old Juan’s Cantina.

155523 Old Juan

155523 Old Juan

That gray beard is a reminder that I’m an old Juan, but what we love about this place is their delicious $105 mini-tostadas.

160852 Mini Tostada

160852 Mini Tostada

That’s one in front of Anne in this fuzzy pic. As you can see by the fine crystal water glass, it’s a humble place. As you’ve probably also guessed, these tasty dishes are small $5 treats (plus $100 to fly there). The library’s free, but these meals are an even bigger draw. Another is the sweet shop down by the beach and a couple of other eateries, but even more fun is walking around and taking in things like this that caught Anne’s fancy.

163041 Mini Dune Colors

163041 Mini Dune Colors

There’s sand just beneath the surface everywhere, accented here by the colors and shapes of this ice plant. Back in the air I spotted somewhat similar colors in this pond, apparently polluted from back in the old field days and now fenced off with warning signs.

8766 Christmas Color Pond

8766 Christmas Color Pond

As we approached Vandenberg Air Force Base and turned to leave the coast this jagged point with sea caves captivated us yet again with a garnish of puffy low clouds.

8873 Air, Sand, Rock, Water

8873 Air, Sand, Rock, Water

After myriad other enchantments we joined the coast again at Gaviota where gathering mist in the distance softened our turn along the shore toward home.

8891 Gaviota Into Mist

8891 Gaviota Into Mist

As we rolled into the driveway of our modest home, these “eyelashes” in the clouds provided yet another fleeting delight.

8944 Eyelash Clouds

8944 Eyelash Clouds

To finish the day and greet the night, I made a couple of small margaritas and we went up onto the roof to sit and welcome the fading of colors into shapes in the shades of darkness with mysterious sounds and twinkling lights of the lives around us. May every day be made more special by an Angel near you.

2015/08/30

Next Door

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,People,Random,SB Region — John @ 08:35

I found out this cool looking house next door to the Hermitage Museum is also part of the art complex, and home to more enigmatic and playful sculpture. We’ve requested that we be added to the list for a future (rare) tour. 🙂

6856 Art Next Door

6856 Art Next Door

2015/08/23

Barbarians

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,People,Random,Relationships,SB Region — John @ 21:19

We love Santa Barbara. Unless you’re new to this blog, you already knew that. But recently I found yet another example that might help explain it.

6843 Barbarian Abode

6843 Barbarian Abode

This relatively modest mansion in our hills exudes creativity and is a great example of our diversity. Many non-homogeneous places like ours struggle to get along even just between political perspectives, but here we do it better than most.  Like some other places we have hardy minimalists living in trackless wilderness near (flying Tripp) massive mansions. Like many other places we have a large homeless population living among billionaires. We have salary workers below the poverty line, artists, and creative people of all sorts including those who’ve grown very rich from their passions. But of all the places we’ve flown in North America, there’s no place like home for mingling such extreme diversity so well.

2015/08/07

Passing Pescadero

Filed under: Aviation,Coasting Adventure,Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,People,Random — John @ 06:32

Passing Pescadero State Beach we turn East toward San Jose, but first a few more pix of this enchanted stretch of CA coast from Oceano to here. Though these homes are conveniently next to the highway with great oceanfront lots you’d want to either live and work nearby, have lots of time and patience, or commute via helicopter.

4915 Home Away From

4915 Home Away From

It’s only 5 minutes’ drive from the store in Pescadero, but the population of 650 or so might limit options. Half Moon Bay with 20,000 or so people is only a bit over 20 minutes if there’s no traffic, fog, or storm. Santa Cruz has plenty to offer after a 45 minute drive or so. But on a good day (and time) you can be in San Fransisco in about an hour, so living here is a great choice for some. On the other hand, if you don’t often need to go anywhere, what a fabulous place to Be!

4914 Being There

4914 Being There

My guess is the beautiful moss on those rocks means there’s plenty of ground water available, maybe even without digging a well if you have a spring to tap. I wake to surf song and laughing gulls, stroll sleepily out to my stairway and down onto the sand, and let the sea soothe me into the rhythm of another day. Just beyond this little dream is our last bridge on this tour, at Pescadero State Beach.

4907 Pescadero State Beach

4907 Pescadero State Beach

Turning inland to climb over the mountains we glimpse the little secret gMaps calls Dairy Gulch.

4900 Dairy Gulch

4900 Dairy Gulch

That trail from the beach leads to a narrow foot bridge across the shallow slot canyon.

4900 Slot Bridge

4900 Slot Bridge

Breathing deeply, we take in the expansive view back along the path of a leisurely flight taking less than two hours to deliver two million magical moments. This is one of the countless reasons people love to fly.

4899 Into The Hills

4899 Into The Hills

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