John & Anne Wiley

2012/09/11

Flying High

Filed under: AB Joy Adventure,Aviation,Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,People,Random — John @ 07:39

So now we’ve skipped past several fun family days in Edmonton, and here are some more pix from our flight to High Prairie. Joy had gone there by car with relatives, and we flew up to get her for our return trip to SB. The flight North was smoky due to distant fires, but I still snapped some scenes like this study of how water interacts with the plains.

2176 Water Plays

2176 Water Plays

I was going to call this one Water Works, but it looks so playful. The town of High Prairie itself has a romance about it that we enjoyed both on the ground and from the air.

2206 High Prairie, AB

2206 High Prairie, AB

Flying back we returned to smokier air, yet still enjoyed the miles of forest where I’d imagined only plowed grasslands.

2215 Prairie Forest

2215 Prairie Forest

The patchwork of logged, regrown, burned and eroded areas makes for an interesting landscape full of variations.

2217 Patchwork Forest

2217 Patchwork Forest

People work there and leave plenty of signs on the landscape, and do get out to enjoy it too. This could be a combination of business and pleasure.

2221 Wilderness Boating

2221 Wilderness Boating

It seems I’m wired to enjoy the shapes people create in their interactions with the land, because it’s just endlessly fascinating artwork to me. Often it looks like they’ve designed things specially for viewing from above, and some few probably have.

2231 Art For Aviators

2231 Art For Aviators

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.

Warm Glow

Filed under: Aviation,Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,People,Random,Relationships — John @ 04:46

We’re back in SB after a warm and wonderful long weekend with family in Saratoga, accented by two short scenic flights. First I took a relative and his two sons out over Santa Cruz, then Anne and I did ATC’s “Bay Tour” where I got this fabulous memento.

0307 Heart of SF

0307 Heart of SF

Though we’ve flown past on a few days that had slightly clearer air, this is by far the most enchanting view we’ve ever had of downtown. Much of the flight I had that old Tony Bennett song going in my head. 🙂

Just got home a while ago and some unpacking to do, but here’s one more pic for tonite showing the fun we had meeting a new family member.

0016 New Life

0016 New Life

2012/08/23

Home Sweet

Filed under: AB Joy Adventure,Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,People — John @ 05:55

Home feels SO sweet!! Just got in an hour ago, having tucked Tripp into her spot at familiar SBA, and unloaded all the stuff (most of which we never used) back into our place. The car was so full, how did we ever get all that into Tripp much less all the way to High Prairie and back?! We bid a tearful farewell to sweet Joy, after arranging to meet again next week for a slide show and debrief. Have now enjoyed what sister Dori calls a “spa” (refreshing damp face cloth to cleanse the skin and soul). Now this quick note to update you (no internet and barely any phone service last nite), and a few pix like this one from today.

3711 Division

3711 Division

Last nite we danced along the dividing line between inland smoke and coastal low clouds. As I mentioned at the start of this Adventure, there are many fires in the hot inland areas of western states and provinces making lots of smoke that’s sloshing around unpredictably with the shifting winds. Similarly unpredictable cool coastal low clouds and fog are shifting with those same winds. We wound up placing our bet on a little airport named Andy McBeth. The tiny town of Klamath Glen it’s in does seem to be some combination of a dwarf Mayberry (Andy Griffith’s town), and a Shakespearean drama. I’ll probably share more about that stop in the next few daze. But back to the pic above: Soon after taking off today we encountered thickening smoke so we climbed to 7,500 feet and got this view of the North Pass Fire near Covelo. You can just make out the crescent moon at the top edge of the pic, and the whole pic shows how we danced along the vertical division between earth, sky and smoke while dancing the horizontal division between fog and fire.

3725 Sonoma Stop

3725 Sonoma Stop

We planned to stop several times on this last day of the adventure, to better enjoy the places we saw. But somehow the only landing we made was in Sonoma. Approaching the airport I snapped the City Hall and town square where we’d soon be sampling the fabulous fare at the Basque Cafe. It’s visible at the upper left if you know what to look for. Having stopped there once before and gorged on their incredible cookies, we know where to look. 🙂

3738 Take Out

3738 Take Out

We savored a bag of sandwiches and cookies under the shade of the town square’s redwoods near the fountain. Then back in for another bag we brought home to share with friends tomorrow. Typing this my mouth is watering as I imagine a cup of Anne’s Perfect Coffee with the second best (Anne’s are unbeatable) cookies.

Now to sleep, perchance to dream…

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