Recently, I've spent some time driving around San Diego county visiting farms. As I was driving, I was trying to put together a detailed image in my mind of the land we live on. I took mental note of the canyons, roads, hills, mountains, coast, green areas, dry areas, rural areas, urban areas, and other things. I did this too when I first moved to San Diego in 1999, but now my search for local sources of food gave it a new dimension.

The idea popped in my mind how interesting it would be to see this land from the sky. And then I remembered that my friend Dan is a pilot! He's been flying for a few years now out of Montgomery field just for the pure pleasure of flying. We met there just before 6pm and he was worried about the clouds moving in from the coast, but fortunately that didn't happen allowing me to take some wonderful photos.

When you take off from Montgomery Field, you fly over Clairemont Mesa with a wonderful view north towards the UTC area and beyond. I've been in almost every non-residential building and down almost every street in the bottom half of the photo below. When I look at it, I'm surprised at how many trees there are, how many red roofs there are, how curved Regents Road is, how beautiful the sun is as it hits the size of the buildings, and how many gently rolling hills there are.

Almost instantly we found ourselves over La Jolla looking up the coast. Here you see La Jolla Shores drive winding up the hill from the coast in the foreground of the photo. I'm proud to say I've made it up that hill on my bike a few times, but it looks oddly flat in this picture. Beyond that, you see the canyons cutting through the cliffs as you head north. The canyons all over San Diego are especially visible from the air and look like green and brown rivers within the urban landscape.

In the photo below you see Soledad Lagoon, the first of six lagoons I spotted on the way up to Oceanside. These lagoons where our best physical landmarks as to where we were during the flight. Once in Oceanside, we turned around and headed around Point Loma and downtown, then over El Cajon and Cowels Mountain on our way back to Montgomery field. The photos started getting darker and harder to take after Oceanside. Take a look at all all 61 flight photos here. They are in order with what I describe here, so that should help you identify what each photo is of.

Although I flew in small planes a few times before, it's been awhile and I've fogotten how it makes me feel. I love how it gives me an entirely different way of looking at the world. It helps me celebrate the the dirt I live on, the other people who live on nearby dirt, the food that the dirt helps grow, the water that provides seafood, and the air I fly through and breathe.