John & Anne Wiley

2010/09/16

Lost Day

Sigh…

Well, today was invested in handling several important distractions from our plan of preparing for MT (MerryTimes, my name for our flight to Nova Scotia and the east coast). Anne just squirmed in her seat said, “This has been one papery day!” Now she’s back at her typing on the laptop. I sighed again after typing this.

This morning we had a long and delicious talk about the trip. We discovered that each of us had some sadness about it. I was sad to still be here while weather on our route is turning colder and wetter. She was sad that we hadn’t talked more about her initial desire to just make this a return visit the east coast. I’m so glad we talked! Now we’re “processing” in between our “paper” time, and continue to go deeper into where our feelings are coming from. I just love that we don’t focus on strategies, but instead delve deeply in the realm of who we are and what we want. To me, this is the Meaning of Life. 🙂

So needless to say, we’ve done nothing at all to prepare for departure. One thing I started on yesterday and intended to work on today, is “wind deflectors” for Tripp. When we open her windows in flight, there’s lots of wind noise. I’ve figured out a way to clip an angled plexiglass strip onto the back edge of each window frame in their respective doors, so that wind is deflected back outside rather than buffeting everything in the back seat and making so much noise. Let me know if you’d like a sketch, and I’ll probably post a photo once I actually build and try them.

I’m glad we flew yesterday, and took a break just now to review a few more of the photos. Now I never had a Beanie Baby toy so I don’t know much about them, but apparently they made a guy named Ty Warner quite rich. He’s involved in some high-profile real estate here in Santa Barbara, and one story I find interesting is his place above Butterfly Beach. I’ve heard he bought half a dozen mansions on that prime property from their reluctant owners, dozed them all flat, and built this complex.

1057 Ty Warner's Cottage

1057 Ty Warner's Cottage

I like the open design, and being fascinated by the story (whether true or not) I often glance at and/or snap this place when we fly past offshore. It seems to be mostly complete now, but we watched the construction for what seemed like years. Click on the photo (as with most any photo here) to see the larger version, and imagine the ocean & islands view from the pool and cabana.

Glancing further up to coast we could see what looked like an algae bloom in the water.

1058 Miramar & Summerland

1058 Miramar & Summerland

Above the wide beach near the left edge you can make out the row of cottages and beyond that the rest of what remains from the Miramar Hotel. I think that’s owned by another developer, but possibly Ty is involved too? Sadly, it’s currently languishing and locals miss the restaurant where they used to have meetings, meals or just gather for coffee. Further along to the East above the brown bluffs is internationally known local software company QAD (amazing buildings and view if you’ve never been there). Just past that is Summerland beach and the small seaside town sprawling beyond the freeway. We once played on that beach with friends on a summer evening during an algae bloom, and delighted in the “liquid light” created by every wave. It was fun to splash and swim in, and every time I see an algae bloom from the air I wonder if it’s of the sort that would create those conditions.

Well, back to “paper” and maybe later some tinkering with Tripp’s deflectors.

2010/09/07

Glacier To Medford

Here are a few more pix from the Glacier Park to Medford leg of our NxNW Adventure. We were telling friends the other day that it’s fun to review the pix again for this review of the trip, because each photo puts us right back in that moment. It’s impossible to really remember the trip, aside from the vivid memories that come up at random. Looking at the pix though, calls up the memories quite strongly. We can look at one and start talking about what was going on at that moment, and find ourselves drawn back into more than just the visual framework. For example, when I saw this dam at Coeur d’Alene it seemed as if I could smell the river and feel the spray on my face.

0727 Coeur d'Alene Dam

0727 Coeur d'Alene Dam

I remember wondering what the lake and these falls looked like before the two dams were built (the original post during our trip has a wide shot that shows them). Then below the other dam I noticed bright colors below the rapids.

0728 River Run

0728 River Run

The three boats at the right, and a few boats among the cabins on the near shore, got me imagining the fun of going down the river. Watching the shore drift by, dabbling my feet in the ripples…

Later near where the Snake joins the Columbia, the landscaping done by massive floods over millennia offered shapes that are endlessly fascinating. Musings seemed to flood the plane.

0734 Flood Plane

0734 Flood Plane

I’ve already shared the best snaps of Crater Lake (though the low light and air quality challenged my ability), so I’ll close with this shot Anne caught in the fading light as we turned “base” to land at Medford. I sighed deeply again looking at it just now, as my heart and mind overflowed again.

0372 Medford Dusk

0372 Medford Dusk

2010/09/05

Banff & Beyond

In a quiet moment just now, I looked again at pix from our NxNW Adventure approaching Banff. It’s so beautiful I had to post a few more. Here are two that give some context for the Banff Lodge pix I posted during the trip.

0667 Banff Approach

0667 Banff Approach

The small city is mostly out of frame to the left, and the lodge is just visible to the right of the bend of the river beneath the jagged peak.

0676 Over Banff

0676 Over Banff

Now we’re over the edge of the city with the lodge just right and beyond the white water rapids. To my eye that peak looks like it was once the bottom of a lake or sea, lifted up to that freakish angle by whatever forces created these mountains.

Passing along the valley to the South we saw innumerable striking vistas, and quite a few more glacial waters.

0710 More Turquoise

0710 More Turquoise

In ordinary terrain, the turquoise water and stark mountain would attract visitors from miles around. In this glut of magnificence it blends into the background. Even what we saw next couldn’t put much of a dent in our joy that such places are preserved for future generations.

It was a bit shocking though, to see what a few years’ supply of fossil fuel extraction leaves behind.

0718 Open Sore

0718 Open Sore

Since it’s miles from Banff and away from main roads at about 50.196572, -114.812794, maybe most Canadians don’t realize this is going on. Only the ragged row of mountains beyond is silently watching.

2010/09/02

Blue Rockies

I once had a recording by a group I think was named String Band, of a song I think was named “Blue Canadian Rockies” (first popularized I think by Hank Snow), that pined for the shores of Lake Louise. That of course implanted a lifelong yearning to visit this renowned place, and Anne I’m sure has her own story of wanting to see it. So after departing Edmonton and passing Rocky Mountain Home, we entered the Banff Park valley and turned South with considerable romantic anticipation. We weren’t disappointed.

0581 Water Colors

0581 Water Colors

Glacial runoff produces colors that can be difficult to believe, much less photograph. Does this give you some clue, when you remember that we were enjoying a panorama of such views?

0600 High Falls

0600 High Falls

We saw several magnificent waterfalls so high in the mountains that few people have seen them unless from a small plane. Reaching this spot would certainly involve an arduous and dangerous climb, because it’s quite high above the Saskatchewan River.

0619 High Glacial Lake

0619 High Glacial Lake

Before long we also saw high glacier-carved lakes fed by the runoff from the shrinking glacier that presumably sat and carved their bowl from solid rock over millennia. This is probably closer to how Lake Louise once looked, than what we see now down nearer the valley a few miles away. How many people will see this before it’s gone? Instead, most visitors will probably take the short drive up to Lake Louise from the main highway traversing the valley. Perhaps some might wonder how it looked with a glacier descending into the lake, rather than retreated up into the misty distance of this snapshot.

0622 Lake Louise

0622 Lake Louise

Further along the valley toward the South I noticed this cascade of small falls and pools on a high slope, and wondered how many people have ever been there.

0647 Tumbling Falls

0647 Tumbling Falls

A bit further was a striking scene where rocks and trees dance in a geological rhythm.

0659 Reaching Rocks

0659 Reaching Rocks

Such an amazing region! We’re so glad to have seen it from the air!

Shall I look for a few more pix of this passage to share in another post about this day?

2010/09/01

Jasper Seconds

The first time I ever saw Jasper was on a train from Smithers, so perhaps it’s fitting somehow that my third experience of Jasper began in this small town with a big regional presence. It’s not just the tourism that is now year-round, but also it serves as a shopping destination for some of the region of B.C. between Prince George and Prince Rupert. It was a delight when the hotel shuttle driver said she’d be happy to give us a “Mainer” enroute to the airport. Noting with some delight our quizzical expressions, she explained that’s what her kids called it when they’d cruise Main Street.

0274 Mainer

0274 Mainer

Though it’s changed a lot since I lived there, some of the places I lived and worked remain as reminders of another era.

We discovered Jasper anew too, because approaching it from the West presents a very different perspective and we noticed things we’d missed before. Even in this day’s heavier smoke, the Western entrance greeted us with a hint of ancient Egypt.

0538 Pyramid Peaks

0538 Pyramid Peaks

For reasons I don’t understand, this view also reminds me of our time in DC at the feet of solemn Abe in the Lincoln Memorial.

Sometimes the intensity of Being Alive almost overwhelms me, and I woke in that space this morning. Maybe that’s why there’s something massive for me about looking again at these faint impressions of places that evoke faint and distorted memories. How many miles and passages have piled into the misshapen vessel that is human memory? How is it that we ever experience as mundane, this incredible Life?

Next Page »

Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.