Category Archives: Travel

Kitty Hawk

There is not a shortage of aviation themed stuff on this blog. I realized that one thing I had never covered was the First Flight. Obviously I didn’t cover it live given my obvious youth! However, on a vacation to the Outer Banks a few years ago, my buddies Steve and Rich joined me on a trip to Kitty Hawk to see where the Wright Brothers had made the first powered flight. For some reason, none of the three wives wanted to make this trip and they did something else. No idea why…

The layout of the place is pretty simple. There is a monument to the event up on a hill overlooking the site. It is a pretty impressive structure and very much more substantial than anything else there. You have the workshop they operated out of (which I now can’t remember whether it is original or a recreation) and the markers on the ground to show the location of the first four flights they undertook on that day. There is also a museum off to one side and an airstrip located a short distance away. It is a big, wide open area so, even if there are lots of visitors, it is not crowded.

There was a steady breeze while we were there so you could see why it appealed to someone trying to get airborne. Since the whole thing is on a sand dune and the mapping of things has probably improved a bit in the last hundred years, I suspect there is some uncertainty about where exactly everything was. However, that hardly matters. This was the place where the first powered flights took place and the step to regular manned flight was made. Interestingly, once they had achieved this goal, they headed back to Dayton and their further development took place there. Kitty Hawk will always be the first though. If you look at Ohio and North Carolina license plates, you will gather that they still argue over this. Not a fight I need to join though.

Egret in Balboa

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Some animals seem to like attention. Even when they are supposed to be afraid of humans, they end up being the center of attention. Such was the case with an egret that was standing in the water in Balboa Park. At first I thought it was a plastic model but, once it started moving, it was clearly real. Everyone was distracted by it. Some kids were keen to get their hands on it but the parents seemed to do just enough to stop it getting spooked which was quite surprising.

I assume it was attracted to the fish living in the water feature. However, they seemed to be wise enough to stay away. Whether it got any food or not, I don’t know. It stayed around for quite a while and I left first. When I came back, it was gone. Whether it was bored or knew of a better lunch spot, I shall never know.

Hotel Del Coronado

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When choosing where to stay on Coronado, we had some options. One of them was the Hotel Del Coronado. A historic hotel that has appeared in TV and movies and has a reputation for providing a luxurious stay, we could have gone there. The exorbitant room rate was not what put us off of course. We just wanted to be in a different location. However, we did take a walk along the shore on that side of the island and I had to get a shot with the phone while we were there!

C-130 Launch

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While I was not aiming to get any aviation photography done while I was in San Diego, I don’t think it is wrong to grab a few shots of passing aircraft if they happen to come my way. It’s not like I planned for it to happen. While we were up at Cabrillo, a C-130 launched out of NAS North Island. It was still a reasonably large distance away from us but I did manage to get a few shots of it as it climbed out in our general direction. At least it stopped me from getting withdrawal symptoms.

Alcazar Garden

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While other parts of Balboa Park have a very ordered look to them, the Alcazar garden is an interesting contrast. The beds are laid out in a pattern for sure but the plants that grow have a far more natural feel to them. It doesn’t have the feel of a perfectly manicured garden but instead feels a bit more like what the natural plant growth would be if things had been left to their own devices. It makes the place feel more relaxed as a result.

While it was a nice place to relax for a while, it was a bit tricky to find a way to convey the relaxed nature of things photographically. The type of plants gets a little lost when you are looking at the wider view of the garden and the detail of the plants loses the feeling of the overall space. Perhaps you will just have to take my word for it!

Paris on a Bike

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When we still lived in the UK, I took part in a charity bike ride. The ride was from London to Paris and was in aid of the Royal British Legion. Spread over 4 days, the first leg was from London to Dover and over on the ferry to Calais, the second leg was from Calais to Abbeville, the third was Abbeville to Beauvais and the last was Beauvais to Paris. The first leg was not a lot of fun. Eighty miles through the south east on some busy roads when you were pretty much left to your own devices was not too relaxing. The trip through France was a totally different story.

For our whole ride through France we were escorted by motor cyclists. It was like being in the Tour de France. As we approached, the traffic pulled aside and the motor bikes cleared our path. Red lights and stop signs meant nothing. In each town at which we stopped, the town would turn out to provide us with food and wine (not a good idea when there is a big climb straight after lunch) and entertainment. Everyone was unbelievably welcoming and we were constantly being cheered along by anyone we passed.

Each town we stopped overnight in would have a parade. The remembrance ceremony each time would be a really well supported event and I felt like I knew the Marseillaise by heart by the end of the trip. The first two days were eighty miles each, the third was a slightly easier seventy miles and the last day was under sixty. I had always thought of northern France as quite flat. I will never make that mistake again.

The final day was pretty impressive. We rode through the outskirts of Paris coming through areas I had heard of before but never visited. Then we were running in to the center of the city itself. The run up to l’arc de Triomphe with all of the traffic was an amazing feeling. The whole group together with our police escort stopped Paris traffic. We rode around the monument before parking our bikes and then walking up the Champs Elysée before holding a final remembrance ceremony under the arch itself. Quite an impressive event and one that really meant something after the effort to get there.

I only had a small film camera with me so there aren’t too many shots and they were taken while on the move. Hopefully they will convey something of what was a really cool trip.

Strange Branch Texture

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As we wandered around the botanic garden in Balboa Park, I was quite interested in a plant that had branches with an odd oval shape repeated across their surface. I mentioned it to Nancy and she had seen something similar in another part of the garden but that had been cut off. The cross section of the branch was more interesting than the surface apparently.

We spent a short while hunting for where she had seen this before and when we found it, she was proved correct. The outside of the branch had the same pattern as I had seen earlier. The inside was certainly unusual. Rather than try and describe it, I shall just let you take a look for yourselves.

Japanese Friendship Garden

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Located in Balboa Park is the Japanese Friendship Garden. Just alongside the Spreckels auditorium (which had an event underway whose speakers were sufficiently loud to somewhat diminish the peacefulness of the garden), it drops down into a valley in the park. Work is currently underway on some new areas and, after walking through the top and seeing that building work was underway lower down, I was a bit concerned that it might prove to be a little lacking in interest.

However, once we dropped down the steps and into the valley, it became apparent that there was more to see lower down than up above. The garden was beautifully laid out with a number of different pathways to take you through the trees, around the blossoms and past the water features. A tour was underway while we were there which actually served well to keep most people together and us, therefore, with a bit more space and peace (other than the noise from next door) to enjoy the garden.

Someone had come in a kimono to have their picture take so we were moving around trying to avoid getting in their way. Some of the other visitors seemed a bit more oblivious! Our timing was good for the blossoms to be in good condition. Obviously that was not something we had planned but we were happy to take advantage.

NAS North Island

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The north end of Coronado Island is the home of the US Navy’s NAS North Island. Home to a lot of helicopters as well as an overhaul facility for F/A-18 Hornets, it also seems to have a lot of transient traffic. We were on vacation so I was not going hunting for airplanes. I even managed to not have the camera to hand as we walked along the water when an MH-60 came heading towards us. I have had some crummy luck when trying to shoot at North Island in the past anyway.

However, when we were up at Cabrillo National Monument, we had a great elevated view of Coronado with the station laid out in the foreground – relatively speaking. Shooting long range is not going to get great shots but the haze was relatively controlled and the light at that time of day was starting to be on your side. I got a few shots of the base as a whole which give you an idea of how it is laid out.

Botanic Garden

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The Botanic Garden in Balboa Park is apparently one of the most popular visitor locations in the city. It isn’t hard to see why since it is densely packed with all manner of vegetation, much of which is beautiful to look at. From tiny plants and delicate orchids to great ferns and palms, there is plenty for the visitor to see. And, there are plenty of visitors! The place has never been quiet whenever I have been there and this visit was certainly no exception.

Not only is it a popular place for people, the local wildlife also seems to like what it has to offer. Birds are flying around at the entrance all the time. I also saw a pretty cool looking caterpillar on a plant just outside the door. I don’t know whether it considered the plant life inside to be tastier and couldn’t get in or whether it was happy munching on what it had. It certainly seemed to be well fed, though.

The garden is not huge so, with everyone squeezed in, it feels pretty busy. Some people are looking at everything, others seem to be just enjoying the overall ambience. For many of the children it seemed to be a chance to see how many of the signs they could ignore by standing on things that weren’t to be stood on or touching things that were not supposed to be touched! I enjoyed the shape and style of the building as much as the plants. It calls out for playing with either a really wide angle lens or a longer lens to compress features. I had to make do with what I had with me.