John & Anne Wiley

2010/06/19

Carp and Back

Filed under: Flying,Has Photos,People,Random,SB Region — John @ 03:52

Just half an hour of “engine time” this evening gave us almost an hour of transformative flying. We cruised slowly along the 101 toward Carpinteria, then climbed offshore for a look at the oil platforms. For some reason it’s been quite a while since we looked at them. Usually we’re over the water along the shoreline, or climbing much higher going over to the islands.

7095 Oil Platform

7095 Oil Platform

The shimmering seas remind me of that old TV series “Victory At Sea.”

Then we climbed over Carp toward the Santa Ynez range, deciding whether to cruise West up the valley.

7098 Hazy Hills

7098 Hazy Hills

A glance at the haze helped us choose a gliding descent back toward the Santa Barbara Harbor. At about Butterfly Beach or so I snapped the surf lineup waiting for the next set.

7100 Sunset Surfing

7100 Sunset Surfing

I like how the sand has been stirred into dirty puffs by the larger waves they’re waiting to ride. Sometimes clouds over the Salton Sea look like this, as if this were a view of the sky.

2010/06/18

A Walk

Filed under: by Anne,Happiness,Has Photos,Nature,Random,SB Region — John @ 00:27

I’m hoping Anne will start making more posts to our blog, but meanwhile I wanted to share some pix she took yesterday. While I was at our dentist on Coast Village, she walked to the Biltmore and along some of Butterfly Beach. It’s always fun for me to see how other people see, and her perspective in particular is of course fascinating to me. For example, I like how she snapped just one wing and the shadow of a bird (heron?) in this beach view.

0981 Beach Shadow

0981 Beach Shadow

I cropped this from her larger frame that included a few diaphanous clouds, in order to accent the bird. Such a beautiful town to live in with such a beautiful person, eh?

She also snapped several studies of this floral collection, and this one isn’t cropped though I did compensate somewhat for her compact camera.

0984 Floral Display

0984 Floral Display

I like how she features the yellow, yet includes the tiny white and blue flowers once you’re drawn in. As you may have noticed, pix from her camera are at a different numbering sequence (e.g. 0984 vs 7090 on my camera) though yesterday’s ground-level Courthouse snap was my idea on her camera. If you like her work, please consider posting a comment and/or using our Contact link near the upper right of every page. A little encouragement might get her snapping and posting more often. 🙂

2010/06/16

More Flying Things

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,People,SB Region — John @ 05:51

We thought today would see us flying at least briefly around SB, but our hearts were too heavy. Instead we did a few errands and spent more time looking at photos. So here are a few more from Sunday’s ceremony, and it’s been therapeutic in our adjustment to Molly being in Paris rather than here so tomorrow it’s more likely we’ll get airborne.

There were two categories of things we saw flying Sunday. First was the beach ball so often seen at graduation ceremonies, as if to get us singing along with the speeches.

7007 Bouncing Ball

7007 Bouncing Ball

I have to add another gratuitous photo of Molly, this time during the introduction of her award.

6987 Molly Exalted

6987 Molly Exalted

This was the one glance I caught her taking toward her thrilled family, clearly moved by their joyful tears and cheers.

The second flying object category came at the end when there was a brief cloud of tortillas that apparently take the place of those expensive caps, and as was pointed out they also may be useful in case of extreme hunger.

7046 Flying Food

7046 Flying Food

2010/06/14

Molly Walks & Flies

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,People,Random,Relationships,SB Region — John @ 23:37

Yesterday our precious god-daughter Molly “walked” at UCSB. That’s the term students use to summarize donning the traditional black cap and gown with various garnishments signifying special achievements. I’m proud to note that her uniform additions included a special sash and braid. Her walk was amid the faculty and administrators, and her seat was on the stage where she was introduced and given an award before she walked again for the diploma.

6935 Humble Excellence

6935 Molly is modest, unassuming, sweet, kind, patient and considerate

It was inspiring to hear the speeches and see the grads getting ready for the next phase of their lives. The ceremony was especially moving for us, since she flew out of SBA headed for Paris only a few hectic hours later. Oh how we will miss her!

As you might have noticed on the aerial photo, the audience included people watching from outside the seating area.

6963 Overflow

6963 Overflow

Some couldn’t get seats, and maybe others wanted a head-start on the massive end of ceremony exodus.

All over Isla Vista, both before and after this one among the series of many ceremonies, students were moving out. At the same time, new students were scoping out the logistics of moving in. Grads were selling furniture that incoming students were buying. With such a massive turnover of residents going on, I.V. was some combination of a bizarre swap meet, curbside estate recycling, hellos, goodbyes, and transcendent stress; all flowing in an easy dance of worry and compassion.

Having also attended the Masters Degree award of precious niece Erin a few years ago, UCSB has been forever transformed for us. Flying over, bicycling or strolling the area evokes strong memories and feelings, along with the stunning beauty of the place.

6013 I.V. & UCSB

6013 I.V. & UCSB

2010/06/13

Ceremonies Begin

Filed under: Flying,Has Photos,Random,SB Region — John @ 07:57

In a few hours this will be us, so it was fun to fly over UCSB Saturday on a brief 5:30pm flight with family.

6865 UCSB Graduation 5:30pm 6/12/10

6865 UCSB Graduation 5:30pm 6/12/10

Anne’s guess is that we’re looking at thousands of people gathering to celebrate this batch of graduates. Congratulations are resounding all over campus and I.V., with ours added in for Molly.

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