John & Anne Wiley

2012/09/10

Back 2

Filed under: AB Joy Adventure,Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,People,Random — John @ 08:12

To finish up my review of pix not yet posted from our AB Joy adventure, I’m going back 2 posts to get back to it. Next is the day we flew from Spokane to Edmonton with only two stops, the first where Tripp rested briefly in Cranbrook while we waited for Canadian Customs. It turned out all we needed to do is phone them, but at least we all got to rest. 🙂

1969 Rest Stop

1969 Rest Stop

Next is a pic I love but didn’t share because it might not look as dramatic to you. It’s a waterfall over 100 feet tall that has carved a path through the solid rock of Canadian Rockies near what I think is Wilcox Peak.

1996 Carved Continental Bones

1996 Carved Continental Bones

To me these ancient rocks have the color and texture of the exposed bones protruding from the flesh of the slumbering prairies beyond. They tell how the persistent passage of water melts impermeable stone like butter. Next is a blurry closeup of a giant cave we passed, high on a massive sheer cliff. The opening is over ten feet tall by my guess.

1997 High Cave

1997 High Cave

Did extinct giant cave bears once winter here? Did ancient humans ever scale the cliff to shelter here in summer? It would take quite an expedition to find out. A few miles away, just past Sherbrooke Lake I liked how this stony shoulder opened to the valley where a glacial torrent has tamed to a trickle.

2002 Stony Shoulder

2002 Stony Shoulder

As you’ll recall from my earlier pix, we saw innumerable dead and dying glaciers like this one. So many signs that before global warming ramped up a few decades ago there were many more and much bigger glaciers in this long valley like the one that used to grace the end of Lake Louise.

2012 Last Gasp

2012 Last Gasp

Even without glaciers and with the smoke from rampant fires in the dead and dying forests spread across the region, it was stunningly beautiful all along our flight from Banff to Jasper.

2071 Beautiful Passage

2071 Beautiful Passage

As we passed Jasper a collection of ponds along a river put on a pretty palette so varied it still delights me to look at this pic.

 

2104 Pond Palette

2104 Pond Palette

After another and more brief stop at the Jasper Hinton airport just outside the mountain valley from Jasper, we headed for a sunset landing in Edmonton. Along the way the colors of civilization slowly mingled with and then dominated the ever flatter landscape.

2109 Descending

2109 Descending

As the earth fell away and flattened beneath us, I gradually eased back the throttle to descend with the sun into the lights and bustle of the big city. Pulled back by our memories of the day, we watched silently until the glitter eased us back into the slumber of frenetic motion touching down.

2012/09/04

SF Flood

Filed under: Aviation,Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,People,Random,Relationships — John @ 21:29

OK, I’m clearly overdoing it but can’t seem to limit the number of pix you might enjoy from our remarkable 9/2 San Francisco flight. Starting off with flying across the takeoff pattern for the massive and busy KSFO international airport.

0327 New View

0327 New View

In my late teens I modified an FM radio to receive air traffic frequencies and parked my car up on Skyline Blvd to watch the comings and goings here. Now I’m part of that communication as we make our supervised crossing of the two main active runways. Passing below us is a 747 “heavy” loaded to the max with people, luggage and fuel climbing out across the Pacific.

0243 747 Heavy

0243 747 Heavy

The one baseball game I remember attending in my youth was here at the giant Candlestick Park, now looking empty and small.

0315 Candlestick

0315 Candlestick

After passing the Bay Bridge this giant bow and arrow sculpture surprised me, because somehow I’ve never noticed it before.

0262 Buried Bow

0262 Buried Bow

I’ve never spent more than a few nights in the city, though I did make the commute from San Jose fairly often while living there. So this flight helped rekindle my memories and my desire to reacquaint myself with SF, making the flight partially a look back to my youth.

0265 Back to SF

0265 Back to SF

The holiday crowds at Pier 39 were colorful and even apparent from half a mile up, and trying to recall where Fisherman’s Wharf is launched me into a brief Google session.

0296 Pier 39

0296 Pier 39

We went out across the Bay to get a look back at the city with the Golden Gate, and loved watching the fog pouring in across the mountains above Sausalito like a foamy wave.

0280 Sausalito Fog Flood

0280 Sausalito Fog Flood

Dim memories of season long ago in Washington Square were refreshed as I noticed the many people choosing a spot there to enjoy their last holiday of summer.

0302 Washington Square

0302 Washington Square

Last in this spew of sweet memories is one of my favs. There has long been a special place in my heart for Coit Tower, and I don’t know why.

0298 Coit Tower

0298 Coit Tower

There’s a generational aspect for sure, recalling a hasty hike up to it with our daughter. The deco style of it resonates with the style of my parents’ and their parents’ generations. But maybe now it also reflects on all my times in this enchanted emerald city and stands as beacon to a lifetime of memories.

2012/09/01

PNW

Filed under: AB Joy Adventure,Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,Random — John @ 22:37

We feel a special kinship with the Pacific NorthWest from each having lived there for many years before we met. Some of our fondest memories are of the colorful sunny days, because they stand out so brilliantly from the months of gray overcast and drizzle. Since we only fly in fairly good weather, our trips to the PNW have usually been on days like these during the flight from Renton to Spokane.

1850 Memory Cascade

1850 Memory Cascade

It brought a cascade of fond memories as we entered the Cascades. Forest, flecks of snow on the mountains even in summer, and rivers running through it all.

1864 River Run

1864 River Run

So many memories along such rivers, and the innumerable creeks feeding them. Then across the dry prairie to Spokane, where we got this great view of the waterworks we’d taken a short afternoon walk on a previous adventure.

1928 Spokane Waterworks

1928 Spokane Waterworks

I enjoyed a deep, delicious sigh just now looking at these pix again and remembering our glorious times here – both recent and decades ago. So much water has gone under the bridge, and life keeps getting better. Now we see many of these places from aerial perspectives that greatly enhance the contemplative view we’re gleaning from the decades gone by.

2012/08/30

Further Behind

Filed under: AB Joy Adventure,Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,SB Region — John @ 23:37

Long ago as my last post seemed, this one’s further behind because I’m falling further behind. That is, posting more pix from our AB Joy Adventure has been falling behind other stuff on our ToDo list. So the pix I’m sharing below for today is older than the stuff on the prior post. Hope I can get thru all the unshared AB Joy pix before we begin another Big Adventure. 🙂

1728 Big Rock

1728 Big Rock

So as you can see, we’re flying the OR coast after our night at Coos Bay. While the gals have been enjoying a steady stream of coast my focus has been a few of the more striking offshore rocks on my side of the plane. I haven’t yet figured out where these rocks are, but maybe you’ll recognize them. If you click to see the larger version of the one above you can start to make out the variety of birds enjoying the top.

1734 Sea Caves

1734 Sea Caves

I’m endlessly fascinated by the many sea caves along the CA/OR coast, and the ones in offshore rocks even more so. I’m in a kayak exploring, or maybe in an old timey story about pirates.

1735 Rock Arch

1735 Rock Arch

Rock arches take it up a notch. It’s mind boggling to imagine the forces that would carve such a beautiful arch while leaving all the support structure intact. Maybe an ancient lava tube made the arch area softer than the rest of the rock?

1740 Spooky Shapes

1740 Spooky Shapes

Some of the shapes are just spooky. If the Nautilus sub in that old Disney film has a secret home base, this would make a great entrance. Carved down into solid rock would be a chamber where the sub descends. Then it surfaces in a gigantic subterranean dome where the sailors can climb ashore below sea level. Whatever’s inside, there’s a sinister air about it. Or not. Maybe just a really beautiful collection of shapes that’s home to a variety of animals that shelter there via land, air and sea.

2012/08/28

Long Ago

Filed under: AB Joy Adventure,Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,Random — John @ 06:07

The effects of “prop advance” that I’ve mentioned before have combined with the fact we holed up for a while after arriving home. So these pix from our 8/8 flight have the feel of something long ago. Having had all the coastal flying during the return trip on my side of the plane adds another long ago note to these pix from the flight North. As I wrote back then, nearly all of the scenery was on Anne & Joy’s side of the plane. So it’s a little surprising to see that I did manage to snap a few pix I like on that day.

1690 SF Bird Rocks

1690 SF Bird Rocks

Because they were offshore I snapped these bird rocks in the churning surf just before we reached Pedro Point. A minute later the Point itself came into view, and I like the stark angularity of it.

1691 Pedro Point

1691 Pedro Point

A moment after as we crested the Point, this tiny settlement intrigued me. Was it once a fish camp? Have those boxy beach houses ever been impacted by high tides, seas or a tsunami?

1694 S. Bay Beach Houses

1694 S. Bay Beach Houses

While the gals were taking in San Francisco and starting to talk about their view of Golden Gate Park and the bridge not far beyond, I pondered scenes like this. We’ve flown along this coast several times, yet after so many miles of just open sea on my side the deprivation led me to notice it. Luckily, after the bridge our views were more equal as we angled inland.

1715 Vineyard Quilt

1715 Vineyard Quilt

The angular shapes of this vineyard near Rohnert Park were part of a welcome relief from all that ocean. Again, I probably paid more attention to this part of the flight than on previous flights over this area. So maybe this pic is less magical for you than it still is for me. I could crop it so that only the vineyard shapes are showing, but to me the way the quilt integrates with the rest of the landscape is part of the art. That small squiggle of creek at the left edge. The straight edge of road and bare square fields. Even that clump of trees at the top where I learned online the historic Washoe House still serves meals as it did long ago.

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