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.

2010/09/09

Endless Spring

Santa Barbarians are a bit grumpy lately. The weather has been cooler than usual, with much more low cloud and fog – especially along the coast. We waited for it to clear Saturday afternoon, and got this sunset shot from just offshore of the airport looking northeast.

1040 Goleta Pier

1040 Goleta Pier

Even on this “good” day it was much cooler than normal, and there was still fog trying to pour over the islands. Today it succeeded and sunset saw clouds surrounding our mountain tops. Even so the clouds offered soft pastel colors to accent an orange tree thick with juicy fruit.

1046 Cloud Cap

1046 Cloud Cap

I’m glad we’ve had our Summer experiences elsewhere this year on our NxNW Adventure. Some of the hot and humid weather on the trip made us appreciate the unusual fog and clouds here, and we’ve flown out from under it a few times to get some hot sun just a few minutes’ ride beyond the mountains. I hope this long stretch of Spring weather patterns doesn’t portend a wet Winter. I wonder how the weather will be when we take off for our MerriTimes Adventure. We’re starting to talk about dates now, and in a few days we’ll look at forecasts and make a plan.

2010/09/03

Fog Fun

We took Tripp up for a fun flight this evening, intending to fly an hour or two with brief stop at Santa Paula for fuel and return at sunset. As we walked across the field to trusty Tripp (who seemed to me a bit excited to use her wings), my eye was seeing a different flight. Even though Tripp has all the latest gear to fly on instruments, my license doesn’t have the required notation to use it. The fog I could see blowing over UCSB made it clear that we had an hour at best before my VFR (Visual Flight Rules = no fog) license would make landing back at SBA unlikely. So we changed plans.

Taking off on Runway 33 we got a beautiful view of downtown with fog menacing the entire shoreline to Ventura in the West and beyond where the coast turns South toward L.A.

1013 Foggy Coast

1013 Foggy Coast

So we just flew to the harbor and back, enjoying the unusual weather while keeping one eye on the airport. Because of the westerly wind blowing along the shoreline, we could see the fog moving among the trees on the hills of the “Mesa” and Hope Ranch areas. So fun to watch!

1031 Fluffy Fingers

1031 Fluffy Fingers

Years ago, before getting my pilot license, we used to drive the Big Sur coast occasionally so I could gasp. Every time we drove there, several times I would take an audible deep breath. It was involuntary, and so predictable that we took to counting them. Well it happens much more often now that we fly, and not just in the Big Sur area. Our twenty minute flight today was a two gasp jaunt that consumed far less time and fuel than those scenic drives.

Flying the Big Sur coast is nice, but in some ways driving it is still better. Driving from here is an all-day adventure each way, with only brief stretches of highway along the scenic coast before the views get gasp-ish at San Simeon. Flying it again is in our near-term to-do list, as is repeating our way of touring it in more detail. We land at Monterey, ride the inexpensive metro bus to the southern end of the line, get off and enjoy the environs for a while, then catch a later bus back to our plane for the flight home. This gives us four views of that amazing place, all in an easy day from home. Meanwhile, I can get my gasps from a few minutes of flying around SB in Tripp.

1037 Hope Hills

1037 Hope Hills

2010/08/28

Foggy Boats

Filed under: by Anne,Flying,Has Photos,SB Region — Anne @ 09:41

Though we postponed our flight today for several hours due to unwelcome Fog, when it cleared over land but hugged the shore, it was Fog that made this flight especially spectacular!  Our delighted friend sat in front, so my photos were out the closed back window. Still I couldn’t help but take this foggy view of boats in the harbor.

0433 Foggy Harbor Boats

0433 Foggy Harbor Boats

by ~Anne

Speaking of Which

Filed under: Aviation,Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,People,Random,SB Region — John @ 09:27

Speaking of weather, rather than risk getting fogged in at Oceano we flew our dear friend along the shoreline to Montecito and fog was flirting with the shoreline. Unheard of for late August here, but these are unusual times it seems. Sure was beautiful, and maybe Anne will share some of the shots she got on the way out. I got these two coming back.

0975 Andree Clark Bird Refuge

0975 Andree Clark Bird Refuge

I imagined the waterfowl hunkered down with their feathers fluffed up against the cool sea breeze. The recently famous Clark estate is disappearing into the fog at the top where Cabrillo bends and at the right you can see colorful shelters set up over tables for some event at the SB Zoo. Montecito Country Club is still in the sun at the bottom of this pic.

0981 Hidden Harbor

0981 Hidden Harbor

Santa Barbara Harbor is all but hidden in the fog, with the stadium at the picturesque SB City College still in the clear. It was a beautiful game of peek-a-boo flying along the coast, and we could see the fog moving inland and then vanishing just in from the beach. The airport was completely clear, and I kept one eye on it the whole time just in case. Such a beautiful flight.

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