At least Vicki didn't lose her photos!

John, Vicki, Nate, Karen, Rick

Cloud cover, San Francisco Bay, Mount Shasta

One pic shows you why we didn't fly the coast line- we wouldn't be able to see a thing!

Look carefully at the pic of San Francisco Bay. See the bridge in the middle? Just to the left of it is Alcatraz Island.

When we landed it was 106*.  I was sitting there staring at snow covered Mount Shasta. ( it is just left of the tail of the plane in front of ours).

Redding is like Richmond - 2 hours from the coast, near (much taller) mountains and (much clearer) lakes.

CA coast

This afternoon (Thursday) we flew to northern CA.  Rick intended for us to follow the coast line, but clouds were in the way. We did see a small part of the coast, but then flew up the valley. In the pic you can see the coastal range, the valley they farm in, and then more mountains.

LA

We spent the last two days visiting family in LA. As soon as we landed Rick took up his nephew, Max, then his niece, Alexa, for a ride in his plane.  They loved it. And I loved being on the ground and watching them!
We thoroughly enjoyed our visit - and I got to catch up on posting. Sat by the pool in the warm sun with a cold drink....
Wish I could show you some pics, but they are all gone, like the Painted Desert ones.

We drove to Pasadena last night to meet our friends from Florida.  So our plans we made in Santa Fe actually did happen!  John and Vicki's son Nate is what I call a space man. He is doing an internship working on level 4 lasers and there is no level five. Rick understod his job, but not me.

Page, Arizona to LA

On 7/26 we left Page with cloudy skies all around us.  The cloud cover was such that we'd never see the Grand Canyon.  So we actually headed east to avoid bad weather. But the good thing is we went through the Painted Desert. Amazing colors that were in the cliffs! Now the bad thing is these photos are gone. They show up as beds with a question mark. When we get to Portland tomorrow I am going to see if these are recoverable.

Retry

I would love for this video to come up on the blog, so I am resending it.
It is a panoramic view from the plane.

Mesa, Lake Powell, Landing

Just a random mesa we saw while flying along. And the photo was decent.

Another view of Lake Powell.  Definitely should be on a bucket list to rent a houseboat for a week and explore this lake surrounded by sheer cliff walls. It was man created when the dam was built and took years to fill in.  Now with the drought levels are pretty low, but the lake is still filled with boaters.

This is our view as we land.  Just thought you might want to see.