Flying Home From San Francisco

Sunday afternoon I left SFO, heading back home to Minneapolis.  It was a beautiful day for flying and I got very lucky.  I had a window seat, a clean window and a sky with just the right amount of clouds to make it interesting.

I've never understood why a passenger would pull down their window shade and watch some Grade "C" movie when there is such scenery passing by as this.  We left SFO on the right-hand of the two South to North runways and then turned toward Oakland.  You can see San Francisco in the left photo (At the very left edge there is tiny image of a companion flight that departed on the left runway.) and downtown Oakland in the right one.  Click to enlarge.


Crossing over those verdant hills east of Oakland we passed the runways of Travis Air Force Base.


Soon, Sacramento drifted into view.  It is interesting to see the muddy Sacramento River swallowing the blue American River at this time of year.


Just across Lake Tahoe, the shallow Washoe Lake beckons.


With that, the clouds began to pile up a little thicker.  About a half hour after Tahoe, this valley appeared through an opening.  It is probably close to the Nevada/Utah border but some reader will have to identify it.