June 24, 2006 - Napa Valley and San Francisco Bay
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| My Dad and I decided to fly to Napa Valley and go to Jonesy's Famouse Steakhouse which is at Napa Valley Airport. We took off from Cameron Park and flew along the South side of Sacramento. Mather airport is off the right wing. It used to be an Air Force Base and is where I spent six months going through Navigator training. Now it is a public airfield. I think Fedex is the primary user. |
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There are a lot of river and canals southwest of Sacramento in an area known as the Delta and obviously lots of agriculture.
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| Approaching San Francisco Bay, we flew over this field of windmills. There were all different sizes. |
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Some of them were pretty big. I'd say the diameter of these were longer than the Citabria's wingspan.
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| Lots of windmills. |
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| Then we came to Suisan Bay, home of the mothball fleet. It has been there forever. At least in my lifetime. As a kid, I'd see the mothball fleet everytime we drove from our house in Sunnyvale to visit my grandparents in Sacramento. |
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| Put this is the first time there was a Battleship in the mothball fleet! It is the USS Iowa. [In 2012, the USS Iowa would be moved to the Port of Los Angeles to become a museum ship.] |
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San Francisco Bay off the left wing.
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| Passing by Mare Island, which used to be a U.S. Navy submarine base. The Navy used to have a big presence in San Francisco Bay: Moffett Field, Alameda, Mare Island, Treasure Island and the Presidio. They are all closed now. I guess the Navy got tired of being abused by the whacko politicians this area is infamous for. |
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Napa Airport is a pretty good sized, towered airport. There was a NASCAR race taking place nearby over the next few days which explained why there was 40+ business jets and turboprops on the ramps. I've never seen so many in one place.
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| Ground control basically told me to park anywhere I wanted -- just away from the expensive planes! |
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| The restaurant is right in the terminal area.
My Dad and I had a nice lunch at Jonesy's and it was everything I had expected. The restaurant itself was very nice inside, the steak was outstanding, and I especially liked the trademark smothered hash brown potatoes.
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| Napa Valley looking north. Not so scenic from the air on a hot afternoon. |
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San Quentin Penitentiary on that point in the center of the picture.
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| I had wanted to fly over the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz but it looks like there are low clouds over San Francisco Bay. |
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Fog over the coastal mountains to the west.
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| Well, at least I can say I saw the Golden Gate Bridge. |
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| That's the San Francisco skyline on the other side of the cloud layer. |
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Angel Island.
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On the east side of the bay, looking south down Interstate 80 at Oakland.
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| A look at the entire Suisan Bay ghost fleet. |
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| A big suburb development south of Sacramento. |
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| After three days, I finally realized that Cameron Park was an airport community. The houses on the other side of the runway had airplanes in their garages. |
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My Dad enjoyed the flight.
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