Cross-country trip

As I write, I am in the Phoenix airport, having spent the last 2 days in Santa Barbara. This evening I will be in Seattle and finally head home on Wednesday. Interviews. I was invited out to Santa Barbara and, employing a bit chutzpah, offered to fly myself to Seattle before knowing whether they wanted me to go out.

I remember when pilots used to announce what we were flying over, but apparently that's not done anymore. I really wish they did that because I wanted to know what rivers I saw undulating below me and which mountains had thrust themselves up out of what desert. I'm pretty sure I saw the Mississippi. At first I thought it was too narrow, but when I compared it to roads, knew it was pretty broad. Especially when I was 'way west, I was very interested to see how different the mountains are from the ones in New England. And the vegetation, or lack of it. Today, leaving Santa Barbara, we flew south over the ocean and turned inland probably around Los Angeles. The desert was impressive. I lived in southern New Mexico and have been to Israel. Israel had been the most barren land I had ever seen until today. The sand leading to the mountains gave the impression of fog, something not solid.

Other than palm trees, Santa Barbara had a lot of eucalyptus trees. They look as though they are always bare of bark. The most surprising things I saw in SB were pelicans and seals. The seals were less than 75 ft from shore in the inner part of a harbor. I have seen them in New England, but this time there were 3 or 4, and they played. A young man was wading out to get closer to them. I smiled when I first realized what I was seeing, then felt a pang of sadness. A friend had told me about seeing seals practically next to her house and thinking of her reminded me of her partner's very recent death. Twenty years of doing my part to try to help researchers defeat cancer had not helped.