John & Anne Wiley

2010/11/13

Sunset Cruise

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Random,Relationships,SB Region — John @ 05:45

Not long after moving to Santa Barbara we went on a romantic sunset cruise of the harbor. So delightful to look back at our “new” town snuggling in for a cozy night beneath the mountains. Dappled hues on the gently rippling water, as we joined other couples talking quietly and cuddling against the mild chill. Lovely.

Well today we enjoyed another romantic cruise, this time 1/4 mile up flying slowly West in the calm air. Sunlight was still caressing rolling hills.

3408 Sunset Knoll

3408 Sunset Knoll

In the West there was a fascinating orange “cloud” that stood out from a few slightly pink clouds more toward the northwest.

3413 Smoke Fingers

3413 Smoke Fingers

We decided it was smoke from a wildfire or more likely from agricultural burning, as was the consensus on a different photo of it I sent to Edhat. As the fun finally thinned to a sliver on the horizon, I snapped one last photo before we turned for the gentle ride home to SBA. Have I ever mentioned that Santa Barbara is an exceptionally beautiful place? 🙂

3433 Smoky Sunset

3433 Smoky Sunset

2010/11/11

Yesterday

Filed under: Aviation,Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,People,Random,SB Region — John @ 00:43

All our troubles seemed so far away, floating dreamily past Stearn’s Wharf on a slow climb.

3359 Stearns to Mountains

3359 Stearns to Mountains

How many times have we enjoyed a bike ride, walk or drive from Stearns straight up Altered State Street? I like how many trees our town has, making the narrow corridor up State stand out due to the lack of green. Some day I’ll need to get a camera that doesn’t emphasize haze so much, because it actually looked pretty clear and crisp yesterday. Approaching the air traffic pattern at Camarillo (KCMA) there’s this agro island school.

3376 Agro Island School

3376 Agro Island School

I call it that due to how it’s completely surrounded by agricultural fields. I wonder how long it will be, before those fields give way to housing developments. We used to always look for high vantage points, like this church tower in Ventura.

3379 Church Tower

3379 Church Tower

While it does seem like a nice place to watch people walk the courtyard maze, we feel differently about “high” places now that we often look so far down at the tops of them. Even when we passed Sears tower in Chicago last year, it didn’t seem all that impressive. Maybe partly because we can choose from such a wide variety of altitudes and locations to look at points of interest. In a tower (if you can even find a way to go up) you’re limited to one location and often only one height above ground. We do still enjoy glass elevators though. 🙂

2010/11/10

Quiet Flight

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Random,SB Region — John @ 02:24

Weather was glorious today, so we decided to take the short hop to Camarillo. As always, the Santa Barbara harbor shimmered with colors and life.

3356 SB Harbor

3356 SB Harbor

Coming home just before sunset, Anacapa Island was floating in a bath of ocean mist.

3391 Floating Anacapa Island

3391 Floating Anacapa Island

Such a magnificent place to live, sail, and of course fly. I took another deep breath just now, adding this pic. As we flew Anne turned to me and asked, “Why do we ever go anywhere else?” Guess we enjoy going away so we can come home, and also maybe seasoning our quiet time here with the spice of adventure. 🙂

I’ve sent a different pic from today to Edhat, and will probably add some to our Photo Page later.

2010/11/09

Both Sides Now

Filed under: Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,Random,SB Region — John @ 02:16

That old Joni Mitchell song is one of my favs, and I’ve always enjoyed cloudwatching. Now that we’ve flown Tripp among and above them, that enjoyment has only increased. Tonight’s sunset walk brought more fun cloudwatching. This one first got our attention when a jet climbing out of LAX emerged from it.

3316 Fast Cloud

3316 Fast Cloud

The air outside the cloud was dry, so the jet trail ends close to the cloud. I like how the cloud, up at 16,000 feet, is still in full sun while you can see the orange glow on the foreground tree here close to sea level. Just four minutes later the cloud has changed completely and the tree is bathed in even more orange glow.

3319 Cloud Morph

3319 Cloud Morph

You can still make out the jet trail at the left, and the cloud was markedly further away. When we got home I looked it up, and winds up there were at least 50mph. Two more minutes and it had changed even more, with a new low cloud forming down in the sunset glow.

3322 Orange Puff

3322 Orange Puff

Looking the toward the sunset rather than away, other little puffs were forming for our entertainment.

3323 More Puff Clouds

3323 More Puff Clouds

Seven minutes after the first pic, the first cloud had moved perhaps seven miles away and was now alive with various sunset shades.

3329 Soft Sunset Clouds

3329 Soft Sunset Clouds

Such a beautiful world! Every moment a new miracle.

2010/11/08

Back Again

Filed under: Aviation,Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Nature,People,Random — John @ 09:28

I distracted into looking back again at pix from our 10/10 flight to San Diego, and found yet more to share. Here’s the Solana Beach and Del Mar area.

2585 Del Mar Area

2585 Del Mar Area

On the large version of the pic you can make out the race track this side of the lagoon. In the closer shot below, click to see the relatively large number of people walking the sandy shallows at the creek mouth.

2591 Del Mar Fair/Track

2591 Del Mar Fair/Track

Near the hang glider/ultralight spot, nude beach, and UCSD there are some fancy buildings perched on sandy bluffs. The glass one looks like some sort of upscale display case. Pretty cool architecture.

2606 La Jolla Farms Rd.

2606 La Jolla Farms Rd.

At last, over Mount Soledad we turned toward Montgomery Field to prepare for landing. There was just time to snap this hazy view of the skyline as we began our descent. I’ve uploaded a larger image than usual for this blog, so if you click to view the largest version of this it may show some detail. The ship at the left end of the Coronado Bridge is at SIMA where we once taught advanced computer classes for Navy techs.

2615 Distant San Diego

2615 Distant San Diego

The tip of massive Lindberg Field shows at the right below the bay, and reminds me of the fun we had landing there with Molly & Dustin. Above that is the tip of Coronado Island leading to the Strand beyond. I once rode my bike along the Mission Valley green belt (foreground) from Mission Gorge to the beach. They’ve been restoring the river front and adding more access, so it’s probably even nicer now than when we lived there. Such a fun flight it was, and the return trip on a slightly different route brought new adventures but no more pix so you’ll just have to imagine. 🙂

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