Such Great Heights

Last week I was traveling, yet again, for work. This time, I headed back to San Francisco to conduct two trainings on how to use GPS and publish geographic information on Google Maps. It was a nice trip, the trainings went well and I got to see two of my college roommates that live in the Bay area. Additionally, the San Francisco Giants were in the World Series and two of the early games were taking place in the city while I was there, so the atmosphere was electric. But this post is not about work, friends or San Francisco. It's about my flight across the country.

San Francisco Bay Bridge and Ferry Building along the Embarcadero

Those of us that are lucky enough to get to fly on a regular basis, often fail to see it as an opportunity to experience something truly unique. We get on the plane, fight for the last available blanket, hope for anything but the middle seat and a smelly and/or oversized neighbor and at the first opportunity, check to see what the in-flight entertainment will be. Except for perhaps some of the smallest travelers, those in the 4-10 year old range, for whom it may be there very first flying experience, most of us get on, get seated and for the next several hours get lost in our own world of headphones, DVD players, iPhones and GameBoys. Very rarely do we think to look out the window.

I can remember clearly the first flight where I happened to be traveling across the country on a clear day and found myself in the window seat. At some point early in the flight, I looked out the window and immediately was captivated. For the next five hours, I barely took my eyes off the everchanging scenery that played out before my eyes. In school, you learn about landscapes and all of the great wilderness areas that have been preserved for their natural wonder as National Parks. We've all seen pictures, some of us have been fortunate to visit a few of them in person and they certainly do leave a lasting impression on their own. But to see the transformation of our great American landscape happen before my eyes all in a few hours of a single day was an experience I will never forget and one that you can't get from books, photographs or even from visiting some of these places in person. It is a unique vantage point that you can only get from peering out of a small oval window on a clear day at 30,000 feet.

So now, every time I travel from one coast to the other, I fight for the window seat and hope for a clear day. I don't always spend the entire flight with my eyeballs looking out the window like I did that first time around, but I do make sure to glance up at regular intervals and more often than not, I get a gimps of something spectacular. Above are some of my photos from my journey across our magnificent country last week. I was headed east to west on a not so perfect day in a not so perfect plane, so clouds and window gunk make the quality of my iPhone photos less than ideal, but hopefully you can get an idea of some of the sights I saw on that day. It wouldn't matter if these images were perfect though, no photograph can be a stand in for seeing the real thing. So I encourage you, the next time you find yourself on a 4 or 5 hour flight over land, put down your book or peel your eyes away from that movie and simply look out the window.

More images of aerial landscapes from one of my favorite photographers on the subject, John Griebsch. His are a LOT better than my iPhone pics! Check out more on his website: http://johngriebsch.com

Top to bottom, left to right: Washington State; South Dakota; Gulfport, Mississippi; Lancaster, PA; Virginia, Suburbia, USA. All photos by John Griebsch.