Fying SFO-SAN, (cont) Orange County

We leave Los Angeles and fly over Orange County, CA. Orange County is both a
great place to visit as well as a great place to live. The top photo shows the more
Northern part of the County and the busy "Orange Crush Interchange" where
I-5 intersects with CA's 22 and 57. Follow I-5 (north), to the left of the photo
and you see part of Disneyland, the happiest place on earth. http://disneyland.disney.go.com.
Located in Anaheim, there are many things
to see and do here.:

Just above the intersection you can see Angels Stadium,
home of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, another LA area baseball team
and a contender the past few years.
Although, they have not been able to beat my beloved Red Sox in the playoffs!
www.angels.mlb.com.

Two major shopping areas are located in Anaheim, The Block at Orange as well
as the Mainplace Mall. http://www.simon.com/mall/default.aspx?id=1236 and http://westfield.com/mainplace. Visiting Anaheim: http://www.anaheimoc.org.


The second photo shows Costa Mesa and Santa Ana in Central Orange County.
John Wayne Airport, (SNA) is located just Northeast of the coast, (shown in the lower right corner of photo). Normal take-off takes us over the affluent communities of Irvine and Newport Beach, and such SNA is a strict slot-controlled airport with a limited amount of landing/take-off slots. It also has strict noise abatement procedures. Normal take-offs consist of a powerful pitch-up followed by (as we reach the lower corner of the photo), powering back the engines as we glide over the coast until we are well over the water.
www.ocair.com.
In the lower left hand corner is the ritzy South Coast Plaza, serving the affluent consumers of the "OC". www.southcoastplaza.com .


The third and bottom photos look out over Newport Beach and Irvine. Irvine is home to many Fortune 500 companies as well as the home of UC-Irvine
University. www.uci.edu . Irvine was also rated by money magazine as one of the top 100 places to live in the US. http://www.irvinecvb.org. Newport Beach is a wealthy community of million + $ beach residences. In the center of the harbor, (in the third photo), is the beach surfing enclave of Balboa Island. http://www.visitnewportbeach.com/.
www.balboa-island.com/.

SFO-SAN, (Con't) over Los Angeles

We fly over Burbank, which at this time of the morning is a little hazy. As the
morning marine layer pushes eastward from the coast, it tends to stall out by the foothills on the east side of the Valley. Thus, Burbank tends to be a little
hazier than the rest of the San Fernando Valley.
www.burbank.com






As we fly over the Hollywood Hills, we reach the West side, (Center photo), with UCLA, Beverly Hills and Century City, clearly labeled. Santa Monica Blvd. running bottom to top, heads East from the coast to Hollywood. While,
Wilshire Blvd., running diagonally goes from the coast to Downtown, (just past
the upper right corner of the photo).

www.ucla.edu
http://www.beverlyhillsbehere.com
www.centurycitycc.com





Further East of the West Side is Hollywood. Home of the Movie Industry
for over 80 years, Hollywood is the mecca of the world of Entertainment. An
interesting thing about visiting Hollywood is who, as well as what you might see. http://www.seeing-stars.com is a site you may want to check out if you
want to see where the celebs hang out.









Finally, the bottom photo looks out over Downtown LA. The top of the photo,
shows Dodger Stadium, located North of Downtown in Chavez Ravine. At the
South end of Downtown is the Staples Center, home of the Lakers and the Clippers.
Staples and Dodger Stadium are 2 of the more popular sports venues in LA as
the Lakers and Dodgers are two of the more popular sports teams of the many
sports teams in Southern California.

http://www.nba.com/lakers
http://dodgers.mlb.com

Fying SFO-SAN (Cont) over the San Fernando Valley

At 40,00 feet, we fly straight over the San Fernando Valley. The top photo is
taken atop Simi Valley in the Northwest area of the San Fernando Valley.
www.simivalley.com .




The center photo looks over Woodland Hills, southeast of Simi Valley and
to the North, (just over Topanga Canyon) of the Pacific Ocean. http://www.woodlandhills.com.






The bottom photo was taken over Van Nuys Executive Airport located just
North of the of Los Angeles in the South Central Valley. This is a popular airport
with the Hollywood jet-set. http://www.lawa.org/welcomeVNY.

Fying SFO-SAN (Cont)

Today is a beautiful day with little cloud cover, so we get a good view of Downtown
San Francisco. Most mornings there is usually a dense fog layer over the city
which does not allow for good photos. However today, we get a clear shot.
San Francisco is one of my personal favorite US Cities. The strange weather,
hills vibe, as well as the various neighborhoods add to the cities charm.

http://www.onlyinsanfrancisco.com
The middle photo is an overhead view of the Golden Gate Bridge, dividing
San Francisco with Marin County, (top half of photo). To the left of the bridge,
is the Pacific Coast. The fog tends to roll in through the strait that the bridge
crosses. Most mornings and evenings the fog rolls in and envelops the city. This morning however, there is only a tiny layer, (seen to the left of the bridge). The bridge is one of the world's most re-known landmarks and is a must see for any visit to San Francisco. www.goldengatebridge.org .

Flying SFO-SAN on Friday March 25, 2009

We take-off out of SFO for our one hour 25 minute flight to
SAN. We take off to the North and fly over San Francisco before
turning to the South for San Diego.

Flying LAS-BUR on Friday March 6th

As we took off out of LAS we took off to the Northeast and made a sharp bank to the right. The top photo looks over the MGM Grand.










These 2 photos look over the Excalibur and the Luxor.

http://www.excalibur.com
http://www.luxor.com

This photo has a good view of the vast grounds of the Mandalay Bay.
www.mandalaybay.com.

We head southwest toward Los Angeles, the top photo looks back at Las Vegas
McCarran Airport, (LAS), http://www.mccarran.com.












The center photo shows the rapidly growing master-planned community of
Summerlin. http://summerlin.com.












One interesting aspect of the Las Vegas valley, while it is a low-desert; just a fewmiles west we see the red rocks as well as the snow-capped Mount Charleston, as shown in the bottom photo.

As we approach the Los Angeles area, we start to see major sub-divisions on
the north side from the LA area. As the the US's second largest city has grown
beyond the lower valleys over the passes and into the Antelope Valley.


This photo looks at Palmdale one of the rapidly growing suburbs in the Antelope
Valley and has over 150,000 people. http://www.palmdalecalifornia.com.









This photo shows all the new homes being built in the valley.

As we head South over the mountains we see the Valencia Town Center in
the top photo. http://westfield.com/valencia.











The next 2 photos look at I-5 as it crosses the pass from the Antelope Valley
to the San Fernando Valley toward Los Angeles.














The bottom photo looks at the intersection of I-5, (the horizontal highway) and
I-210. At this point we have crossed the mountains and have entered the northern edge of the San Fernando Valley.

We turn east over the San Fernando Valley on approach to BUR.

The top photo looks in on Woodland Hills an edge city in the western part of
the valley. http://www.woodlandhills.com/.
As well as many businesses, Woodlnad has 2 major malls next to one another; The Topanga Plaza and the Westfield promenade. http://westfield.com/topanga and http://westfield.com/promenade.







Although suburban by nature, the San Fernando Valley has various edge
cities but no real downtown, (This applies to most of the LA area). The next
3 photos show Sherman Oaks. The first 2 photos look South over I-405 as it
traverses the foothills down to LA's West Side.










This photo has an aerial of Sherman Oaks looking South. Running horizontal
along the photo is US101, and vertically I-405. If you look toward the lower left
corner near the intersection of the 2 highways, you'll see a long white building;
the Sherman Oaks Galleria, http://www.shermanoaksgalleria.com. The
Galleria was the small shown in some 80's classics like "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" and "Valley Girl". The mall was renovated about 10 years ago and now it is an open-air entertainment complex with movies, bars and
restaurants.

Burbank Airport, (BUR)

Bob Hope Burbank Airport is located in the Eastern Half of the San Fernando
Valley. Being just over the pass from LA and Hollywood, it is very convenient
for the people of Central LA as well as the Valleys. It is a small airport surrounded by the city, (similar to Chicago Midway). With the neighbors so close, it has a strong noise abatement procedures and a curfew with no aircaft
movements occuring between 10pm and 7am, as indicated in the top photo.







BUR, is "old school ", in that it has a single story terminal with no jet-bridges.
For this reason we can board out of both the front as well as the rear. This is
another convenience that BUR offers. It is one of my personal favorite airport
of the many we serve in our system. Information about BUR can be found at:
http://www.burbankairport.com.




The next 2 photos were taken while we were parked in between flights.
Here you can see the single story terminal.









This photo shows how small the airport is, and how close to one another the
aircrafts are parked.



















On takeoff, here is a view of Downtown Burbank to the east. Downtown Burbank
has undergone a massive re-development over the past 10 years. Major shops
and restaurants have moved there, as well as thousands of new residents have
made Downtown home. http://www.downtown-burbank.org.

Flying DEN-SLC on Thursday March 5th

After take-off from DEN, we get a good view of Denver, (top photo). As the
largest city in the Rocky Mountain Region, Denver offers lots of interesting
things to do. Its citizens, our highly educated, and healthier than most of the
other US Metro areas. As well as a wealth of outdoor activites nearby, Denver also offers a thriving arts scene. http://www.denver.org/.



10 miles West of Denver, we see the town of Golden at the foot of the Hogback
Foothills of the Front Range. Golden has restored much of its old west town
heritage and is the home of Coors Beer. http://www.coors.com.








The bottom photo is the western edge of Lakewood. I-70 runs diagonaly along
the photo lower left to top right. US6 runs horizontally from left to right. The large white building near their intersection, is the large Colorado Mills a value-
oriented shopping mall, http://www.coloradomills.com
The area surrounding it is the Denver West Corporate Area.
This area is home to a few large companies most notably Chipotle and
Einstein Bagels. http://www.denverwest.com/.