First Sight of Home

We left Los Angeles on an early flight this morning - 9:00 AM.  Whew, had to wake at 5:30 to get to the airport by 7:00 AM.  Beautiful flight home, clear skies for more than half the trip.  We approached New York from the west then at the Hudson River, we turned south and went over Manhattan and then Brooklyn and then 25 miles out into the Atlantis Ocean before turning and heading north.  We went half way to the north shore of Long Island before turning south toward JFK for our final approach.  When the plane banked to head south, there was Hempstead Harbor in the distance!  So it was our first view of home after having been away for the week.  A sight for sore eyes!

 

The Gymnast

Vivian has been doing gymnastic training for two years now, and man oh man, is she getting good at it.  She is now working on being able to do a hand stand, which she is doing here, and then to hold the hand stand for two entire seconds.  I snapped this photograph as she was going through the handstand, without stopping and holding the vertical position.  She is almost there it seems.  What is interesting is that the coach says the handstand is the foundation of all gymnastics!  I did not know that!

 

The Venice Sign

We had dinner in a really nice Chinese restaurant in Venice tonight.  As we left and turned the corner, there was the beautiful Venice sign against a twilight sky!  The perfect time to photograph it!   Venice, California was founded by Abbot Kinney in 1905, and this sign was illuminated for the first time on the Fourth of July.  The sign was restored in 2007 with a modern day replica, and it is beautiful to see.  It is a tribute to the celebrated Venice of years past and a modern day gateway to the world famous Venice Beach.

 

Randy's Donuts

If you have been to Los Angeles and have not had any Randy's Donuts, then you have not seen Los Angeles!  I had heard of Randy's Donuts of course, but had never seen it until Liz and Amy brought us there in December of 2017.  Here is the Building that I photographed back then.

After Sunday Mass yesterday, Liz said she knew of a Randy's Donuts location in Santa Monica so we walked over and bought almost a dozen donuts, including what is called "A Texas Glazed Donut." On the tag in the display case it said that donut alone was 1000 calories!  Yikes!  I will say this, they taste really good!  I know because I ate more than my share!

 

Going To Church For Mother's Day

Kathy had heard about St. Monica's Catholic Community, as it is called, from a priest in Boston, Mass, and she has wanted to come here.  Mother's day was the day, so she and Liz and Amy and Vivian and I all attended Mass today.  It it a beautiful church, completed in 1925, and a vibrant parish from what we experienced. They gave out carnations to each of the mothers in attendance.  It was a wonderful way to celebrate Mother's Day!

This is an interior of the church showing the altar.  Look at how beautiful it is.  In a way it is a shame to show all of this without the people in it - the church was packed, but it would seem inappropriate for me to photograph during Mass.

 

Our Amazing Land II

I took this photograph before I took yesterday's photo of the desert in Arizona.  We had been approaching the Rockies and then suddenly when the higher mountains appeared, their tops were frosted with snow!  What a beautiful sight!  I kept looking as we flew west and then I noticed something unusual in the loser right center of the photo - thin lines of white snow going down the mountain into the dark area below the snow caps.  So as we got closer, I zoomed in with my lens to see what it was.

My first guess was that this was most likely a ski area and these were the trails going down the mountain.  So I took several close up photographs as the airplane flew on.  After we were passed this area I looked at my iPad which has an aircraft navigation application on it and there on the map, right next to the little blue airplane icon was printed "Telluride Ski Resort!"  How cool is that to be able to figure out where I was exactly!  And what unusual "markings" on the side of the mountain.  Our amazing land, indeed!

 

Our Amazing Land

As you know when I fly on a commercial aircraft, I keep my nose pressed up against the window and with my camera in my hand, I watch the world go by us from above.  "Our Amazing Land" is all I can think of as I fly from New York to California. So many different landforms and so many different colors, and we go from flying over New York City to farmlands and the Mississippi River, and then the praries and the mountains of Colorado, and then the desert lands of the western states.  This desert area is in Arizona, and I took this photograph just east of Lake Powell, which is the Colorado River held back by the Glen Canyon Dam. And below the dam the Colorado River goes all the way to Grand Canyon.  What amazing and astounding landscapes I get to fly over.  What an amazing land we live in!