Retroblogging: March Trip – Flight to LA

I’ve been thinking it might be fun to backtrack and tell you about my trip to LA, and then Toronto, and then Kitchener in March. I have so many people, places and books to introduce you to!

But first up, the flight to LA itself.

My planned reading material for the flight was Lisa Yee’s Absolutely Maybe, because I knew I’d be going to her launch in Pasadena.

It turned out to be the perfect book to welcome me to LA, and not to give too much away, but it really made me want a taco. There. I hope I haven’t said too much.

Some of the other available in-flight reading was also a lot more entertaining than I was anticipating– enough so that I totally forgot to peruse the SkyMall catalogue for the latest, most ridiculous thing. Has an era ended?

A warning before the next few shots: if I live to be 312 years old (and who’s to say I won’t?), I will never ever tire of taking pictures out airplane windows. If I ever age badly and turn into a crazy cat lady, I will do it with airplanes and cameras instead of cats. This is a promise.

When I realized I couldn’t get a direct flight to LA, I chose to connect via Philadelphia, because I love it so much, but have never seen it from the air. Lucky me, we got to circle it twice due to runway traffic!

Rivers and outskirts and snow conspired to draw swirly patterns like veins into a lung:

The city itself. Blow this up and print it on a place mat or something:

And then, magic! Like groundhogs, we landed alongside our own shadow:

My seat from Philly to LA was over a wing and an engine, and the plane flew much higher, so the detail wasn’t as easy to photograph. However,

Wow!

Hills that ripple like fingers (as much as fingers ripple… did that even make sense?):

LA & LA River:

I was surprised at how green LA actually is from the air. Yes, it is also sprawly and grey and never-ending, but there was never a moment where some glimpse of natural geography didn’t peek through. Something I kept learning over an over again about LA is that if you go into it already accepting everything everyone says is awful about it, it will surprise and astound you over and over again with its secret beauty. More on that when we continue…