San Diego Fun

These pictures are from our time here in San Diego. Included are a bunch from the Holiday Bowl Parade which featured a number of inflatable balloons. I had a first class seat watching it from the air. I even found the end of the parade where they deflated the inflatables. So quickly the large characters disappear!

San Francisco

San Francisco is one of my favorite places to fly around. Its just great scenery everywhere you go. I can see why Airship Ventures decided to bring a Zeppelin to the area for aerial tours. I was able to get a few pictures of it over the bay while I was up flying around the other day. Its a truly impressive aircraft. I also snapped a few other pictures of downtown, the Golden Gate Bridge and a few other land marks. One more week here and then back to Southern California!

Watching Goodyear Video

Just a little video montage of the Goodyear Blimp landing and climbing out of their base in Carson, CA. I was flying some exposure along the 405 when I saw them coming in for a passenger exchange. A rare blimp to blimp video.

Flying the Coast Video

A little video from my transit from San Diego to Long Beach. As you can tell, I had some fun playing around off the coast. The camera moved a little bit in my one shot but it gives you an idea of my perspective from the gondola anyway. Christopher Cross's "Sailing" is the accompanying music which sets the laid back mood that the whole trip had that day.

Day Off Hike

I took advantage of a day off this week and went hiking up in LA in Griffin Park. It was a really challenging 4 hour hike I took that tested me physically and mentally. As you can see from some of the pictures, it was worth the effort to get to the top. I was able to get a good picture of the "Hollywood" sign and downtown through the smog. The air quality was kind of low due to the smoke from the fires in the area last week but its getting better. Its kind of amazing that such an area of hiking trails and nature sits right in the middle of this vast area of developement that is Los Angeles.

Sunsets and Goodyear

We've spent this week in Long Beach. Here I just have a couple of pictures of a pleasant sunset from a flight earlier this week. Also I saw the Goodyear Blimp flying around and took a few pictures of them as well. I have some short video of it flying as well from the air that I'll try and upload soon.

Transit from San Diego to Long Beach

To this date, I think this has been my favorite transit I have flown. There is nothing quite like floating up the coast of California. I have a bunch of pictures of the coast line that begin with San Diego and move up through the Laguna Beach area. I also have some short videos I'll try and post later from the transit. Also be sure to check out the cool "blimp shadow on the cliff" picture I took.

San Diego, California

San Diego is a beautiful city to fly around. The combination of the coastline, downtown and strong US Navy presence in the area always makes for interesting scenery. Some of the highlights include shots of the coast, some naval vessels in port and the downtown skyline. I also finally flew my first football event while we were in San Diego as the Chargers slipped by the Chiefs in a last minute nail biter.