Friday, April 17, 2009

Airliner Chronicles: LAX to SFO

I flew Virgin America from LAX to SFO today. I mention the airline specifically because I know for a fact that their particular air routes make for an awesome view out the window. (Also, their airplanes have wireless internet on them. Seriously. How cool is that?) But yes, if you are someone who likes landforms and faults and have to make this flight on that airline, I urge you to make the strongest effort possible to get a window seat on the right side of the plane. The view kept me far more entertained than the novelty of airborne WiFi ever could.

The first few minutes of the flight clung to the coast, but we swung back inland and caught up with the San Andreas Fault around the Big Bend. From there, we flew over...

The Carrizo Plain:

Cholame Valley (Parkfield's in there somewhere - just too small to see from that high up!):

Pinnacles National Monument (the exposed rock in the upper middle of the picture, with the city of Soledad in the foreground):

Loma Prieta (though I'm not entirely sure which of these peaks it is):

San Andreas in San Mateo (or possibly northern Santa Cruz) County (I think this is my favorite of the pictures):

I was definitely pretty giddy with excitement over the whole view by the time we landed at SFO. I suspect the way back to LAX will be just as awesome, if not more so, since I'll be flying in the middle of the day rather than at 6 PM. I managed to snag a window seat on the left side of the plane for that flight.

1 comment:

BrianR said...

Very cool ... I like that last one. If you bring the photos into Photoshop and play w/ the 'levels' and the 'shadow/highlight' it can help sharpen a bit.

On a completely different note ... I know you are a musician ... I just took up piano (had 1st lesson last week) ... if you have any good recommendations for books, websites, etc. feel free to drop me a line (email is on my blog). Thanks!