Ballparks From The Air

Yesterday, I flew to our firm's San Diego office on business from the Oakland airport. It was a down-and-up trip, same day. San Diego is about 500 miles south of the Bay Area. (When you consider that we are still six driving hours south of the Oregon state line, it shows just how big California is). The flight starts out curving over the bay, then over San Fransisco out to the ocean. It follows the coast all the way down to San Diego. It is important to get a window seat on the left side of the plane.

From the air, I saw Dodger stadium, just to the east of all the huge buildings in downtown, from 35,000 feet. Then I saw Anaheim Stadium, or whatever they were calling it at 10am yesterday, just a few minutes later (it is 30 miles south of LA). I also saw our firm's San Diego office from the air. The approach to the San Diego airport, under normal wind conditions, is from the southeast. So I was able to see Petco Park close up amongst the downtown buildings. Nobody else on the flight would have been interested, so I got to see all these things in quiet wonder.

I had several meetings in San Diego, and didn't get any normal work done. But knowing that I was there while the Padres played a day game (I couldn't go to the game), was a bit of a downer. On my return flight, which was just after sunset, I had an aisle seat on the right side, so the view was extremely limited. But, I did get to see Dodger stadium again - in the dark with the stadium lights on. They were playing the Mets at 8pm when I flew by. It was an awesome view from the air.

The only thing I missed was seeing Pac Bell/SBC/AT&T/eHarmony Park on the takeoff out of Oakland. Usually, the flights go over downtown SF, making the park visible. But we veered off to the south, and it was foggy anyway.

Seeing parks from the air was really cool, and these were a couple of flights to remember.