John & Anne Wiley

2011/10/12

Boundaries

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,Random,SB Region — John @ 07:58

We flew to San Diego last week, and saw some boundaries along the way. First we crossed the mountains dividing the Pacific Coast Highway from Santa Monica and L.A. Looking across those peaks, it was a clear boundary between two worlds. One still mostly wild like it was centuries ago, the other totally tame.

6581 Distant Downtown L.A.

6581 Distant Downtown L.A.

Another contrast was between “the basin” of urban sprawl that we call L.A., and the downtown core floating in the sea of city up toward the mountains. It was a “clear” day by L.A. standards, but of course there’s still quite a bit of haze. Just having that many people breathing in the valley probably produces a lot of visible smog, so maybe at some point all city residents will wear gas masks to clean the air inhaled and exhaled. Why do I notice the smog here more than in NYC?

6586 L.A. Basin

6586 L.A. Basin

Next up is the San Diego border, enforced by I.N.S. It seems that enough people from Mexico have managed to cross the U.S. border, that people driving on the freeway from S.D. to L.A. are inspected here. I’m no longer surprised that U.S. citizens don’t object to this, but it’s still a small pleasure being able to fly past it without being inspected. Yet.

6668 Redundant Border

6668 Redundant Border

Flying offshore along Camp Pendleton I spotted a giant hovercraft that crosses the borders between air, water and land. It’s remarkable that such a big and heavy device can carry troops and equipment, while still floating on a cushion of air. So cool!

6682 USMC Hovercraft

6682 USMC Hovercraft

Along the way we saw many spots where the “red tide” reported in news media makes the waves glow at night. We had hoped to walk one of the S.D. beaches after dark to see and play in it, but didn’t find the time. This one at La Jolla Shores was quite a strong one, so it probably was spectacular that night.

6748 Boundaries

6748 Boundaries

In daylight the boundaries are between sea and shore, red and blue. After dark there is a magical boundary between movement and stillness in the water that becomes a boundary between light and dark.

2011/10/10

Sea & Sky

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,Random,SB Region — John @ 03:25

After a solemn short sailing out of the marina at Santa Cruz yesterday, we flew low over the same spot today.

7055 Sailor Site

7055 Sailor Site

At the harbor mouth, we’d floated slowly past the lighthouse on the breakwater at the left. Then we dined in the Crow’s Nest on the other side of the outlet just below the rows of moored small craft. There is a special magic for us, in looking both up and down. Floating on water, and floating on air. Like seasons of life, perspectives are enriched by contrast. Our muse followed us along the beach to Paharo Dunes where memories and marriages were formed years ago.

7087 Paharo

7087 Paharo

Skirting the Monterey airspace where the city was under a solid blanket, we popped over the low hills to weave among the scattered scud along Big Sur.

7128 Big Sur Coast

7128 Big Sur Coast

As I typed the name just now, images flooded back from our magic carpet ride along there a few hours ago and a great long sigh swept over me. I’ll be reviewing our collection of pix and uploading more here, on Edhat and on my Photo Page (links at right) over the next few days. sigh…

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?

2011/09/26

Home Town Colors

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,People,Random,SB Region — John @ 03:18

We’ve had a few short flights around town, and the colors just seem to keep getting brighter for us. Thursday we wandered over toward Summerland, and enjoyed the San Roque Bridge over Stevens Park anew. That’s the one we love to drive across, looking both ways and then voting. Most often the mountain view wins, but sometimes the coast and islands are just stunning. From up here, the bridge itself adds a lot to the mountain view.

6152 San Roque (Stevens Park) Bridge

6152 San Roque (Stevens Park) Bridge

From a quarter mile up, the other view is also quite often stellar and it’s always delightful to take in the two views simultaneously from our magic carpet Tripp.

6169 Beach & Harbor

6169 Beach & Harbor

Santa Barbara’s beach and harbor are a constant source of joy for us, including the chance to mingle with tourists from around the world. In front of the mission, the rose garden is yet another favorite spot.

6154 Rose Garden

6154 Rose Garden

Before pruning sometimes the flowers are so bountiful they pop even from this far away. Strolling among them during pruning the fragrance is strong as wheelbarrows overflow with ripe blossoms. The color variations on the large lawn tell of activities like picnics, parties, weddings, frisbee, and touch football.

I also enjoy checking up on several long-term projects around town like these new bridges on Hwy.101 at the Milpas offramp. It looks like some colorful graffiti has been painted out on the bridge abutments, and I’m eager to see what blossoms at this intersection once the work is complete and people begin walking and biking more here.

6161 Milpas 101 Overpasses

6161 Milpas 101 Overpasses

2011/09/21

Pain & Gain

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,People,Random,Smiley Adventure — John @ 23:24

Today I’m sitting in our living room looking at the magnificent Santa Barbara “front range” mountains, and the towering thunderstorm safely beyond them in the Northeast. It’s painful to look at good flying weather when there’s no chance we’ll take Tripp and go exploring. A lesser level of pain for me right now is the physical discomfort from dental surgery this morning. Though there is considerable pain involved in the expense because that translates to many joyful hours of flying that the dental surgery could have paid for.

A big gain from this surgery, beyond long-term prospects for dental health, is that I now have some time to post the last batch of pix from our Smiley Adventure. First of these last is this one of the dunes as we approached Florence, OR.

5280 Slanted Cordouroy Dunes

5280 Slanted Cordouroy Dunes

I’m intrigued by the pattern of dune grasses that are angled from the shore. Guess it has something to do with prevailing winds and waves. Toward the right it seems to morph into a crosshatch pattern with indications of the angled pattern and one parallel to the beach.

After we turned at Gold Beach to follow the Rogue River to Grants Pass, there were several calm sandy beaches where rafters were bedding down in the evening light.

5502 Rogue River Raft Rest

5502 Rogue River Raft Rest

There’s something romantic about this scene for me imagining fireside stories, that distant stare when the group falls into silent reverie, and later dreaming under the stars like countless generations before. In places the river was uniquely transcendent art from this perspective.

5542 Rogue Artist

5542 Rogue Artist

As we began the landing approach, this little lake had me wondering what kinds of vehicles go there (motorcycles?), and whether visitors just zoom by or perhaps most go on foot to camp or fish.

5577 Airport Neighbor

5577 Airport Neighbor

The next day on our way back out to the Southwest hoping for less coastal low cloud, we got more river views that I’m enjoying again today. Like this one that at first glance looks wild.

5617 Nature of Tame

5617 Nature of Tame

After imagining Tom Sawyer exploring that wild island, perhaps you notice the mowed lawn at the left. Then your mind may begin to wonder what all this looks like after periods of unusually long and heavy rain. Like a tooth you had been taking for granted, such a scene could turn suddenly painful. But as we again glance down at a river such thoughts inevitably return to all we’ve gained from forces of nature and fate over the eons.

5638 Reflecting

5638 Reflecting

In the deep pools I reflect on the surges of water that carved them out, and the flood of photos that represent a tiny slice of the glories we see on a flying adventure. Just as the depths would be obscured by raging water, serene clarity emerges as I sit enjoying these photos. I feel more here, and at the same time am more prone to drift back into sweet memories or forward into dreams of another adventure.

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