WATCHING THE PLANES COME IN AT GRAVELLY POINT ON 4-10-26

The brain was tricked into thinking that these planes were coming in pretty slow until all of a sudden, they were overhead and disappearing fast. I caught the ones further out okay, but it was hard getting 'all' once they were 'there'.  The little girl was enjoying herself running around in her pretty sparkly dress as my focus was on that plane coming in to land. Her family was right there but out of frame. I had fun people/family watching, seeing everyone having a good time, a place where everything was put aside for a little while. There is the Washington Monument on the right and you can see the road construction I mentioned in my previous post. This is not on the main road but next to it inside the park perimeter.

Here's another one...They just kept flying in, one after the other...

but there was a break when we heard airplanes taking off at the end of the other runway.  

Back to landing.

I sometimes wonder what those people up there are thinking right about now, and where did they come from.

"Here's a quote from the movie Airplane. Does anyone remember it?  Click here if you would like a refresher. It was released in 1980, a silly movie but I laughed all the way through it. I should find it again for a rerun.

Passenger: Nervous?

Ted Striker: Yes.

Passenger: First time?

Ted Striker: No, I've been nervous lots of times.

A groaner and you know how much I like those.

I never thought I could be so entertained watching planes flying in. This one looks like it is kissing the trees.

We had been here for over an hour, and this was the last one. It was time to leave.

Here's another one of those flying machines about to take off with a potato chip in its beak, a Red-winged blackbird. An opportunity for him as there were many having picnics. I was amazed that any birds were around with all those roaring engines overhead.

That's all from Gravelly Point, until the next time we go. 

ONE LAST POST FOR A WHILE BEFORE TAKING A BLOG BREAK.

We went over to our place where we can view the planes coming in, which didn’t work out quite the way we planned. More on that later as I thought I would share a shortened version of what we did last week.

Top left on the way home! The clouds were outstanding. I am a cloud watcher, the beauty of them drew me in. The same with the airplane snap in the middle on the right. One of my neighbors is top right. These are the people who go all out for their seasonal decorations and they are very impressive. There is already a Tom Turkey on display for Thanksgiving. They add things the closer we get. The yellow flowers were blooming in profusion at Green Spring Gardens. I didn’t even get out of the parking lot this time but was happy with the few flowers taken. More on those later also.  Below the yellow flowers is where Ann’s card will spend Thanksgiving.  It’s right above me on the shelf  where I do all my blogging, and will stay there until it’s time to store it in the box of Ann’s cards where it will join all the others she has sent me. Favorite coffee with the pretty design ordered when we went to what is now our favorite bakery and coffee place, Chateau de Chantilly. We join the young ‘uns there. We were the oldest in the place until a lady the same age walked by and acknowledged us with a smile. The connectivity of our age brought us together I told my dear other half and yes, I am joking. Above the coffee I share a tree with changing leaves in one of the parking lots while running errands. I think that’s it as I continue on to when we saw those magnificent flying machines.

There is a road and a pull-off we have parked many times with others, to watch the planes in line with the runway as they fly low over us to land. It was fun to see but this time there was a policeman. At first, we thought it was just one side of the road that we couldn't park. We saw the police car on the median and as there were no other cars nearer to where he was parked, we made a u-turn at the next available turn, so that we could join the line of a few cars already parked. 

I managed to get a few snaps before the police officer got out of the car. I had my head turned in the other direction watching the planes in the distance approaching, but Gregg could see him making motions that we should move on, his words lost in the noise of the aircraft. His body language was very polite but we got the gist. We couldn't park there either. Everyone has been doing this for a long time, and we have never had a problem before. We will check again, maybe this is temporary. There were no 'no-parking' signs that we could see, maybe one tiddly little one near a locked airport gate used by maintenance people, and no one ever parked near there. Ah well, it was nice while it lasted. I have a feeling new security precautions are being put into place. I remember a while ago someone had been flying a drone near the airport and that gives one the shivers.  

At Reagan National Airport just across the river from Washington DC., there is a parking lot right next to the airport where people see them even lower than this place as the airplanes land. You can actually see the pilots sitting in the cockpit. We will go check that sometime and take a car picnic. There are usually a couple of hundred cars or more, with people making it their entertainment, and they've been doing that for years, ever since as far back as I can remember. However, that may no longer be, but we’ll drive down there and check sometime. 

We were here on Saturday the 8th, and those skies were amazing! We were hoping to stay for sunset pictures...

but that wouldn't be today.

So glad we could get these before we were moved on. It was almost like the officer was waiting for us to get our photographs done before he gave us the word. Probably not but it was a nice thought and we were grateful! There were a few more cars in front of us, and we all left at the same time.

We treated ourselves to a small ice cream sundae at the Milwaukee Custard shop on the way home. No photos of those though! From airplanes to ice cream to trees. We admired the trimming skills of the person who cut this tree while waiting for the traffic light to turn green. It was much taller than the building and perfectly shaped. The photographer, however, was a little tilted.

And so one day we swept all the leaves, pine needles and pinecones up, and that night we had the windiest weather. Not any pine needles this time but plenty of pinecones and crepe myrtle leaves. We looked over the deck to the garden below and oh my! Mother Nature sure is having some fun with us. There will be more sweeping up tomorrow. I have been collecting the pinecones and putting them in old boxes. Thinking of offering some to the neighbors for outside decoration. I also thought I would fill several with birdseed and hang them from the trees. I don’t ever remember seeing this many pinecones before. These photos were after I had picked up a couple of dozen or so. There are plenty of pine trees in Virginia of course, but in our immediate vicinity we seem to have the only pine tree. It was planted before we move in about 35 years ago and quite small. It stayed that way for many years until its roots reached the water table. Now it’s huge and reaching up to the sky. 

 Thanks for looking. I am not sure how long a blog break I will be taking this time, but I will be catching up with you all when I can. In the meantime take good care of yourselves and happy blogging.

 

THIS MADE ME SMILE

I can relate and often tell myself this exact same thing. How about you? 

We had a lovely day and a busy one as we were out for several hours. There were errands to run in the morning, and for lunch we shared a pasty from our favorite pasty shop in Vienna, and we picked up a few goodies to take home. 

The afternoon was the best part as we picked up our son and daughter-in-law from the airport. They have been in San Diego, part business/part pleasure. They were also celebrating an anniversary. They wanted to do something special, so they drove across country, spending a week at their destination and then flew home. I have a lot of photos from their trip. They have said I can share on here, so I will be doing that off and on for a while.

We were early so my dear other half suggested we drive to the spot where we can watch the planes fly low coming in to land. He has an app on his phone that shows where they are coming from. Today, one was arriving from Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, and the other was flying in from Frankfurt, Germany. 

It was a gorgeous day for landing as you can see. 

Those skies made me feeling good looking at them...

but the best part of the day was greeting our son and daughter-in-law at the airport. 

The jeep and its stickers entertained me as they were on their way from the baggage claim.

I see Dolly there. I love this lady, she has the biggest heart, loves everyone and does so much good for people!

It didn't take them long and it was a fun drive to their place. We will be meeting up again soon and will find out more about their trip.

Enjoy your day everyone and 

thanks for stopping by.

(I found the Happy Thursday graphic in Pinterest. The signature airplane was from pixabay.com and I always add my name using Paint Shop Pro.)

AIRPLANE WATCHING

A few weeks ago, when our family from Germany was visiting, we took them to The Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. Not too far from the gates but just outside the complex, we noticed cars parked on the side of the road.  There had been a space made for them to park on each side.

There were several people watching planes landing on one of the runways at Dulles-Washington International Airport. We all fully intended to go back to see this for ourselves. Unfortunately, we ran out of time but...

last Sunday we decided to drive out there and see the planes land. We checked on their flight patterns and we were in luck.  

We both said this was a lot of fun and that we could see ourselves driving over here again.

Gregg has an app on his phone that tells where these planes come from, and where they are heading. He also looks at the app (flightradar24) as it shows all the planes and he could see what direction they were coming in. This one was an Air India flight, out of Vienna, Austria.

This is the information given on our phone for that particular plane.

(The app is free with ads. If you are a plane enthusiast and want to pay the $44 a year you get no advertisements, but we don't mind a few adverts.) 

When we are out sitting on the deck at home we see planes overhead, quite high up. Gregg gets his phone out and tells me which airline, where they are heading and where they flew out of. The novelty hasn't worn off yet. He tells me this app works no matter what part of the world you're in. Below is what you get on your screen.

We spent half an hour or so before the planes stopped coming. I think the wind changed direction and they were maybe landing on another airstrip in the opposite direction. 

Only a few other people were with us watching, a mother with her children and a couple.

We took a lot of airplane photos between us, and here are a few of them.

We had so much fun and I'm not really a plane enthusiast, but I certainly enjoyed these and seeing them land. I wonder what Amelia Earhart and all those other hardy adventurers who started out in the old biplanes on those first flights would think?

I found an old poem that I thought would fit, even though the young man who wrote it flew planes a little further along from the biplane days. It struck a chord. I seem to remember reading it when I was very young during my school days. Does anyone else remember it?

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth

And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings’

Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth

Of sun-split clouds – and done a hundred things

You have not dreamed of – wheeled and soared and swung

High in the sunlight silence. Hov’ring, and flung

My eager craft through footless halls of air…

Up, up the long wind-swept heights with easy grace

Where never lark, or even eagle flew –

And, while with silent, lifting mind I’ve trod

The high untrespassed sanctity of space,

Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

High Flight

By

~John Gillespie Magee, Jr.~

When I think of planes, I think of biplanes and that leads me to thinking about Amelia Earhart. I came up with this, with no particular reason other than I liked it and wanted to share.

Thanks for looking and 

I hope your week is going well.