A Window in the Sky

In my first blog entry I explained the premise behind Rear Window, that I’d be sharing observations, musings and photos of interesting things I see out the window of my own apartment. I know it is early in the life of this blog to start making exceptions but I saw so many interesting things out the window of my United Express flight from San Francisco to Tucson this weekend I had to make the exception.

In Edward Abbey’s The Monkey Wrench Gang, George Washington Hayduke laments (among other things) that “the ultimate goal of transport technology is the annihilation of space, the compression of all Being into one pure point.” In other words, it’s not about the journey, it’s about the destination. When we sit back, relax and enjoy our flight we are really doing the exact opposite. We are going to great lengths to distract ourselves from the fact we are speeding along at 400 mph, 6 miles up in the air over some of the most stunning cities, beautiful nature and shocking environmental impacts. The conventional wisdom seems to be that there is no value to looking out the window to make these observations. Most everyone is reading the newspaper, trying to sleep and/or desperately waiting to be told they can power up their electronic devices.

Because I usually prefer the freedom of the aisle seat I typically fall in with everyone else. The goal of most flights is to kill time as efficiently and ruthlessly as possible until we arrive at our destination. This time though, I had the window seat. I decided to make it about the journey, enjoy the ride, look out the window and see what I could see. I was not disappointed when we took off to the north, banked over the city of San Francisco to turn south, and were greeted with the most magnificent aerial view of the bay, the bridges, Alcatraz and the unfathomable density of the city juxtaposed with the undeveloped park land all around. The captain announced we’d be flying south through the Central Valley, over Palmdale and across Blythe into Arizona. This info, along with my photographs would later help me identify places we passed along the way.

I didn’t have my camera at the ready so I didn’t get a shot of San Francisco but I did get this nice one of Monterey. If you look closely you can see the homes of Clint Eastwood, Jennifer Aniston and my roommate, Allison Bernhardt.

Before long we were cruising over the high peaks of the San Gabriel Mountains in the Angeles and San Bernardino National Forests. It was quite striking to look around the plane to see people reading, sleeping, and watching TV on their iPads when you could glance out the window to see 10,000 foot snow covered peaks. I know certain honeymooners who would pay a fortune to cruise over such peaks for just a few minutes in a helicopter.

Next I saw this lake and thought it looked familiar. Google Earth later confirmed it is indeed Lake Arrowhead, where my friend Andrew lives and patrols the surrounding national forest as a law enforcement officer. While I admired the serene beauty of the mountains from above I also reflected on the fact that in those mountains were poachers, marijuana fields planted and guarded by Mexican drug cartels and dozens of land management controversies. Not too much time to ponder though because quickly the scenery was changing again.

I was pretty sure this was the infamous Salton Sea. I first learned about it through the documentary, Plagues and Pleasure on the Salton Sea. Check out the trailer for a good look at how the Salton Sea was once a thriving resort area, became an environmental catastrophe and how Sonny Bono tried to save it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqMFYGhySpA&feature=related

Just outside of Tucson is the Asarco Mission Complex, a pit mine that produces 400 million pounds of copper annually. Apparently, copper prices are high right now and Asarco wants to expand this mine because some of its others are too close to Saguaro National Park for further development. (See njbookwoman for more on Saguaro). There might be no greater enemy to monkey wrenchers and other environmentalists than the “extractive industries” but I’d like to think that Hayduke would at least be pleased to know that someone appreciated the landscape and contemplated the issues on the way from San Francisco to Tucson.

During a one hour and thirty-six minute flight I saw one of America’s most beautiful cities from a perspective few ever see, I saw friends’ hometowns, some of the largest mountains in California, and some of the environmental impacts man has made in this area of the country. So, go ahead, ask me how my flight was and we could spend hours discussing any of these topics I learned about just by looking out the window.  Next time you board a plane or get in the car for a long drive I encourage you to try to forego the modern conveniences and distractions. Be attentive, aware and one with what is happening and you just might be surprised by how much you see.

I don’t plan to always write so much so thanks for reading! Tune in next week when I’ll introduce you to some of our new neighbors who once lived at the Salton Sea.