By Charlie Morgan

The trip to California is behind me.  The journey home offered some time for reflection as I sat trapped against the window while the CenterPerson tapped incessantly on her iPad (doesn't she know if you turn it 90º one way or the other you won't have to slide the image back and forth to see it all?).  I prefer the aisle but now I know why I was awarded a seat with the letter "F" after the number.  After we had reached 32,000 feet I spied the nearly full but waning moon rising over distant mountains.  At first it was a dim, pumpkin-like orange ... a very spooky Jack O' Lantern Moon that flew higher and brighter as our flight progressed.   

Coming in over the North Sound of Seattle another image was presented.  The moon was now illuminating and highlighting the thick bed of fog that had the city all snuggled in for the night, causing the top of the clouds to have a texture not unlike seafoam on a gently sloping beach, or maybe even more like freshly whipped meringue.  Underneath you could see the spots and swirls of light, some very bright and electric blue, while others were a warmer color temperature that leaned towards a shade of cedar bark.  It was a picture not unlike the large spots we know so well on the planet Jupiter and we were skimming over its surface, adventurous astronauts on a sight seeing venture.  The lesser brilliance of ambient light pushed through from below, giving a sense of depth to the whole scene.   

Many times I have made this trip north over Puget Sound so I knew the route, and as expected we banked hard right and lined up with the other aircraft staged for landing.  I saw them drop lower and lower and eventually disappear in the brume; their last signal to me a wink from the anti-collision lights saying "Follow Us!".  We went just East of Columbia Tower on our pass over the city, and I tried very hard to see the tops of something, but it was to no avail until we were about 500 feet off the ground, perhaps even less.  I saw the street lights, the roads and then the runway markers all in about 15 seconds, so there wasn't a lot of ceiling to work with.   

A perfect end to a weekend of beautiful scenery and skyscapes in the desert.  The pilots still had the door closed when I deplaned, and so I could not offer my usual salutation of "Great job guys!"  All is well, I stepped into the jetway and dropped my phone ................. Balance still prevails in the Universe!