So last week I flew home to the bay area after a month with family in the NY/NJ region. I always love flying into SF from NYC: the route very frequently goes more or less directly over my home town of Santa Rosa, then cuts down along the beautiful coastline in Sonoma & Marin counties, more or less directly over the Golden Gate Bridge and then in some manner or other executes a circle in order to line up for landing at SFO. These photos were all taken in the space of one day when I’d returned from my assignment to Central African Republic last year. I landed late at night at JFK, woke up near the NYC office for my debrief meetings and a bit of a presentation to the office team, then hopped directly on trains to the plane for the flight. Since it was a clear day on both coasts, I got morning photos from a walk along the shore at Battery Park & views of the Statue of Liberty; then took photos of Santa Rosa from above, Point Reyes, San Jose & silicon valley at dusk, and the coast south of SF as the plane began its circle toward San Jose then back up to land. Air travel remains a gift which I enjoy on days when the view out the window is so spectacular, even if the in-airport experience long since stopped having any pleasant elements whatsoever :-). Enjoy!
After a 46-hour saga involving five different airports in three different countries, plus an airport shuttle bus at this end and a very welcome pickup by a dear friend at the park-and-ride on this end, I did manage to spend the night in my own bed last night, and awoke to a 36-degree (fahrenheit; about 2-degrees celsius) cloudy morning here. I’ve ascertain that the second, auxiliary, stage of my apartment heating seems to have either gone on the blink or decided go on strike for under-use these past months (or perhaps someone visiting tweaked the wrong button and set it to cool instead of heat, which my manual tells me would do bad things to that unit if the temperature is below 60…)…so that thus far I’ve been able to get the apartment warmer than 60. Ah the joys of homecoming in winter after many months away :-). Be that as it may: one can dream lof long sandy beaches and warmer sun, but still be glad to have access to one’s own teapot, eh? I’ll post another one or two of these from the photos already prepped, tomorrow and this week, the at some point do a bigger post with all the photos remaining unsorted from my three months in Bangladesh, from which chapter I’ve now moved on. Peace.
So I had a few more photos ready, and as I sit waiting for the fourth and last flight in this 44-hour travel sequence from the longest beach to…well, home…I’m pulling them together to help me stay awake until I’m on board.
So I guess I missed a day again yesterday. Sorry. I’m having to depart a bit more rapidly than planned, due to some family health situations back home. Yesterday I was trying to tidy things up and I think I didn’t manage to post anything. I’ve taken a bunch more photos as one part of my sad farewell to this lovely beach and busy part of the world where I’ve worked with so many remarkable colleagues, partners and interlocutors…and I’m sure I’ll be popping them up on here either from airports on my long trip home, or from there once I arrive. Thanks for reading and keeping up with me. Peace 🙂
