Thoughts From The Plane

I’ve never been able to figure how airlines really plot their routes and here’s a prime example. We’re traveling to Seattle today for a week’s visit with my father and his wife. Boston to Seattle is a fairly long flight made much longer by the stop we have to make in Dallas. Okay, we’re flying American Airlines and Dallas is a hub city for them. This, I understand but when we leave Seattle and head for Hawaii, we have to go back to Dallas before going to Los Angeles and then on to Lihue, Kauai. Does this make sense to anyone? During the next three weeks, I’ll be making frequent entries here so check back often. My plan is to upload some of the great images I’ll be capturing of the Pacific Northwest, both it’s cultural heritage and it’s magnificent splendor. I’m told the rainforests are lush, the mountains rugged and snowcapped and the wildlife unspoiled. I have two photographic goals. The first is to add a magnificent bald eagle to my animal images. I’m told by my father this is an achievable goal. The next is to view and hopefully photograph the resident pods of Orcas ( killer whales ) in the area. They are one of my favorite marine animals. My favorite is the dolphin and since Orcas are a member of the dolphin family, I don’t feel disloyal in the lease. Everyone should have a list of things he or she wants to accomplish before their time on this earth comes to an end. I am slowly crossing these things off mine. I learned to scuba dive because I grew up loving the Cousteau Chronicles and when I went snorkeling, I wanted to stay longer and go deeper. I’ve been to the Holy Land in a time when the region was fairly quiet and travel was considered safe. I swam with a pod of wild dolphins who approached the dive master and myself. Granted, they didn’t stay long because we, as humans, are so awkward in their home and provide such little entertainment. I’ve had the opportunity to ride in helicopters and hot air balloons, not at the same time, mind you. I’ve been to Australia and will go back. What I still have on my list to do: Paris on a warm spring evening, View the Lippizanners at the Spanish Riding School in Vienna, go to the Moon. There are others but I don’t want to drag on. In fact, maybe I should apologize now for the length if this post and others to come. I was cautioned that I should keep my entries to a minimum and I try really hard to limit my posting to a couple of paragraphs but sometimes the subject just can’t be adequately covered with a couple hundred well chosen words.