California From the Air

From the Sierra Nevadas
to rivers and windmills
and the coastal hills,
this was a pretty flight home.
The last photo is probably Nevada.
It looked a bit like a crater,
but the light was getting dim,
and the photo has a rather mysterious blue quality.

Contrasts

Egypt is a land of amazing contrasts.
The lush green palm trees and sugar cane fields, made possible by the Nile and irrigation, just stop abruptly where the water ends and the land turns absolutely barren. Not even a tumbleweed or cactus.

These fun aerial views came from a hot air balloon ride that I took with the tour group- I have always wanted to go up in a hot air balloon and this was a really amazing experience! Balloons are smooth and quiet except for occasional blasts of hot air/flame that are really loud. And you can glide in much lower than you could with an airplane. It's totally different.
I was disappointed that we did not get to glide closer over the Luxor West Bank ruins (like the Ramesseum and other temples and tombs visible in the distance of the above photograph) but we did go in close over one of the local villages, and it was fascinating to see the houses:

Because devout Moslems abhor being in debt (even for a house mortgage) many of them build their houses piecemeal. Multigenerational families live in houses, usually with grandparents on the ground floor, parents on the upper floor and the third storey in process building for their oldest son, to get ready to kit out for him when he marries in his late twenties or early thirties- it can take 20 years or so to furnish out this new floor, all paid piecemeal as the money trickles in.
So there's a lot of temporary looking parts to a typical Egyptian house, since many of them are works in progress (and since by zoning law they are supposed to indicate the final height of the building even if it takes 40 years building the rest of the structure up to that point).
It's a totally different feeling- one that Americans would consider sloppy and unkempt.
But that doesn't mean that they are destitute.
Look at the difference between the thatched straw roof areas and the TV satellite dish!

Aerial Desert

Here are some views of Egypt taken from the plane trip from Luxor to Cairo.
It's as dry as the proverbial bone down there, but there's variation from sand to rock to cliffs.
The Nile area is green and lush, but I didn't see the river from my plane vantage point.

Familiar Sights

Back on the Wasatch Front!

I think that large area to the left may be Hill Field... Dad?

And we're coming across the lake (I like that lake, but though I reside in this state, I have only been up there once, and it was to see the Spiral Jetty. I need to fix that.)

Salt Lake City!
Home sweet home!

Utah at Last

I can see the edge of mountains in the distance... the Wasatch Front!

Yes, it is! This is Cache Valley:

Looking down at Logan, after a bit I spied the Utah State campus, and even (though it doesn't show up in the photos) the Temple!

And this is Brigham City, with the road leading down to it past the reservoir (I often drive there en route to see Mom and Dad!)

Midwest to West

Look at this cool farming area in the midst of mountains!

And this neat band of terrain, set off by deep grooves- it almost looks artificially made.

Aerial mountains... I think this must be somewhere in Wyoming.

More Aerial Interest

This Midwest river is not far from Ohio (I changed planes at Cincinnati):

Though we were still over the Midwest, I didn't see any farms for a stretch.
It always makes me curious as to where we are, and what we see, when I look out the plane window.
I love the clouds!

I also like the crop circles a lot.
And that odd looking uprise to the left is also intriguing to me.

How about this road going through the wilds of the (now) American west?
What a nice long green river valley it has to cut through.

Unexpected Plane Bonus

Not only did I get a bank of 3 seats all to myself so I could lie down on the flight back from England (oh bliss!), we flew over Greenland's tip!
The pilot was kind enough to announce it and there was a general migration to the windows.
I managed to secure a good window view for a few minutes (the persons belonging to those seats having decamped elsewhere.)
Here the plane comes over the southeast tip of Greenland from the ocean:

It's June, and look at all that SNOW!
And yes, all those white spots are icebergs, I believe!

The snow got a tad more subdued as we flew west, but the fjords were awfully keen:

And there were still plenty of icebergs.

It is wonderful from the air, but I am glad I don't live in Greenland.