I went to visit a manufacturer on Long Island New York. The flight went into Philadelphia and as I was landing along the Delaware river, I saw an interesting business with multiple heliport pads around it, right on the river. The landing flight path put this facility only a few hundred feet away out my window. The building said BOEING on it in huge letters. After landing in Philli, I got on a little plane for the final 45 minute flight to Islip airport on Long Island. The tiny little prop plane was almost empty and there was a pilot getting a ride that sat behind me. He told me how much he loved the plane we were flying in and explained that we would only be flying at 4,000 feet, so the view would be great.
We flew out over the New Jersey shore, and I did not know at first where we were. I thought we were going to go right next to Manhattan, but we veered south to stay out of its busy air space. The New Jersey shore has a long barrier island where I flew over (sort of like a mini Cape Hatteras). It was very scenic, and had some nice looking beaches along it. Some areas were developed, but much of it was just an access road, some minimal parking lots and wooden deck looking walkways and wide unspoiled beaches.
Then we went out over the Atlantic and approached Long Island from the south. There was another barrier island, this one much smaller than the one off of New Jersey. It may have been 100 or 150 yards across and had houses three deep on it. You have to figure those houses were horribly expensive because of their location, but they were small and crammed in to the thin strip of land.
We had a very nice visit to our 150 year old company. We got to see one of their original pieces of equipment that they brought back from some customer or boneyard. There was a rep from Russia that was in the class, and he spoke perfect English. He was less than 30 and very interesting. They also took us out to a Japanese restaurant, something the Russian guy thought was very odd. Apparently, they do not have Japanese restaurants in Russia. He stopped eating about 2/3 the way through the meal and remarked that he could not believe how much food Americans could eat.
The trip back was interesting. My flight in the same style small turboprop plane took off and went south, out over the Atlantic. There was a storm coming in and the sun was near to setting. The area was covered with a thick layer of clouds, with amazing frothy tops. It was like being a fly hovering close over an enormous meringue pie. The sun was low in the sky and this amazing display of clouds lit up with the warm colors of the sunset and it was just beautiful and fascinating.
As we neared the coast, I was still looking down, entranced by the view. The clouds just below the plane started to have gaps in them, and you could see the surface below the clouds. There were these white spots all over the ground, and I thought I was looking at buildings. It was chaotic, spread out in a way that I could not understand. I tried to spot some roads or other landmarks that would orient me to what I was looking at. Then I wondered why there were no lights on. It wasn't full dark yet, but this was the east coast, know for being fully lit at night. Even if the buildings' lights were not yet on, I should at least be seeing car headlights, but there were no lights at all. Then I realized that there were no lights because we were still out to sea. The wind was blowing hard that day, and the surface of the ocean was covered with whitecaps. They were so thick, they looked like neighborhoods with buildings laid out in a jumble. The sea between the whitecaps was roiling so much, that it had looked like the texture of ground. About 5 minutes after I realized this, we passed over the coast, and the lights came into sight.
We circled Philadelphia 3 times at sunset, with the clouds cleared away. It was quite a sight. It was right at rush hour, so the highways were packed with cars, and they looked like rivers of light. We finally came in to the landing approach, and I was anxious to see the river view out the window again. This time, we were over the land and coming from the other direction, so it was a different stretch of river than what I saw landing on the way in earlier that week. I was looking closely at the river and suddenly, two aircraft carriers came into view, docked on the river at what turned out to be the Philadelphia Navy Shipyard.
My online research since (see the map at: http://maps.google.com/maps?q=philadelphia+airport&hl=en&ll=39.886097,-75.18455&spn=0.00927,0.019205&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=39.099308,78.662109&hq=philadelphia+airport&t=h&z=16 ) has since determined that there are supposed to be three carriers in mothballs in this mothballed shipyard. The USS John F. Kennedy, the USS Forrestal, and the USS Saratoga. However, there are only two apparent in the satellite photo, but there are some excellent shots of the drydocks. All three ships are decommissioned, and their final fate will be decided soon, with several sites vying to put them up as museums, similar to the USS Intrepid off Manhattan. I would definitely like to visit them once they get there.
