John & Anne Wiley

2011/07/18

SD Scenes

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,People,Random,SB Region — John @ 22:36

Though we do still prefer Santa Barbara, it’s certainly true that San Diego is fun to fly. Take for example this scene on Harbor Drive.

1844 Star of India

1844 Star of India

When we lived in SD, Adm. Cameron & Doris Briggs introduced us to the Berkeley and Star of India (and their rummage sale). Now there are several more major attractions nearby. The city looks good with a garnish of scattered clouds.

1846 Scattered Over SD

1846 Scattered Over SD

Along the beach from La Jolla toward the North there are plenty of interesting mansions to admire.

2062 No Rocks

2062 No Rocks

This airy marvel on a bluff over the waterfront is an advertisement for the axiom that people who live in glass houses should not throw stones. I’d love to swim in that semi-outdoor pool with it’s waterfall front edge that forms a moat. The beach, caves and cliffs at La Jolla Cove used to be among our fav hangouts.

2108 La Jolla Cove

2108 La Jolla Cove

Nice place to visit, but…  🙂

2011/07/17

Why SB

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,People,Random,SB Region — John @ 06:23

Here’s another illustration of why we live in Santa Barbara. Despite the “Carmageddon” in LA that was predicted to bring the End of vehicular movement (everyone seems to have stayed home and averted that), the smog in the LA basin was about normal for a Saturday.

2279 Carmageddon

2279 Carmageddon

That’s the 405 “free”way running diagonally southbound from the bottom of the pic, starting at the Sunset Blvd. overpass. It did feel like a scene from “On the Beach“ with us the only survivors, to see that chronically jammed pavement devoid of cars.

2011/07/16

The Other Day

Filed under: Aviation,Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Nature,People,Random,SB Region — John @ 05:29

I wondered as a kid exactly what that meant: “The other day.” Clearly not today or even yesterday or tomorrow, but some other day. So the other day as we flew out to gawk at the royal polo gathering, we saw paragliders at Ellings Park near Hendry’s (aka Arroyo Burro) Beach.

1723 Hilltop Launch Area

1723 Hilltop Launch Area

This is reputed to be one of the best launching sites in North America because the soft grassy slope is just right, there’s usually a steady uphill breeze off the beach, and it’s fairly easy to glide across the street (out of view at the bottom) to the Wilcox (aka Douglas Preserve) and soar the updraft along the beach bluffs until you tire of that and land near the road where your chase car conveniently picks you up. This next pic was taken a moment later with more zoom, and I like how it shows the stages of takeoff.

1724 Ascent Of Man

1724 Ascent Of Man

I’m hopefully no more sexist than the next White Male, but if you click to view the largest version maybe you can tell as I kinda can from the full-size original that they’re all men ascending into the breeze. Anyway, coming back from the polo thing we saw what we’ve been told is Tom Cruise’s place near Oprah’s, and in the full-size of that one Anne can tell four women are in or sunning next to the pool – so maybe it is his place?

1791 Tom Cruise?

1791 Tom Cruise?

Then we climbed up to visit Tooth Rock (aka Cathedral Peak), and I caught one of my fav pix of this fav local rock.

1797 Tooth Rock

1797 Tooth Rock

2011/07/12

All Kinds

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,Random,SB Region — John @ 03:12

One of the things we love about SB is the way cultures and classes mix more readily than in many other communities. On our 7/8 flight we got an aerial glimpse of that. Goleta Beach near the airport & UCSB is popular with a wide variety of people from across the spectrum.

1646 Goleta Beach

1646 Goleta Beach

Just a mile or two away, most homes in Hope Ranch are owned by gazillionaires, and we got a rare directive from ATC to fly relatively low over it for this closer look.

1652 Hope Ranch

1652 Hope Ranch

In between though, we enjoyed again one of our fav local sites just past Goleta Beach. Does this look like a scene from Maui?

1648 Maui, CA

1648 Maui, CA

So lush and “beachy” looking. I like to imagine sitting on the veranda sipping a mai tai listening to the tropical birds and gentle surf, watching a small plane slide past offshore.

2011/07/10

Mamarazzi

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,People,Random,SB Region — John @ 08:34

My little royalty junkie wanted to fly over Kate & William’s charity polo match near Carp today, so being an aviation junkie I quickly agreed. We got some great pix of other stuff, and flying around the area provided a bounty of glorious views. But in case anyone else share’s my better half’s fascination, here are a couple of our event pix. First, the scene from offshore.

1729 Polo Field

1729 Polo Field

The white flat-topped awning on the left edge is probably where the VIPs watched, and you can see the horses leaving the field (top-left) just as we arrived. I think the “cheap” $400 seats were on the right side. Presumably residents of the condos at the top and their guests got to watch for free.

Here’s one that we think is Kate (see the larger view on my Photo Page for Notes).

1785 Kate?

1785 Kate?

Completely impossible to tell from the air, but this maximum zoom snap from half a mile away does look like her. Maybe someone who was there can corroborate.

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