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First Leg: Tampa to Chicago

Preparing for Departure

When I first started looking for flights to South Korea, my priority was to get the shortest, most direct flight possible, knowing that it was going to be longer than an entire 24-hour day on planes and in airports--at the minimum! The cheaper flights had two stops to make, which meant more lay-overs (and therefore longer flight times) than the ones with only one stop. However, when I found a flight that stopped in Tokyo, Japan, I made an instant decision that that's what I wanted to do--no matter what!

It made for a longer flight, of course, and it was a little over $100 more than the flights that made two stops in the U.S., but I didn't care. I wanted to see Japan... even if only from the air, and in an airport! Billy and I had already determined that we probably wouldn't be able to book trips to Japan and/or China during my visit, due to constraints on our funds, so I figured that if I could at least pass through it, that would be better than nothing!

Taking Flight

It's been many years since I was in an airplane--and I've only flown three times in my life as it is--so I'm not sure if I just never encountered the right kind of weather or if I was simply blind before, but what I saw during take-off nearly took my breath away!

Lifting off the ground gives a pleasant jolt in the tummy, much like the feeling you get when the elevator you're in begins its ascent or descent. I had to reflect for a moment on the wonders of science (physics, gravity, aerodynamics) that make it possible for this enormous metal vehicle, filled with hundreds of passengers and thousands of pounds of luggage, to actually leave the ground and ascend thousands of feet into the air--36,000+ feet on my plane--and then stay up there for thousands upon thousands of miles before coming gently back to the ground!

Now, what about that part that nearly took my breath away? It was after we were in the air, and went through the cloud cover; it was a very cloudy morning; the skies were covered so completely with clouds that there wasn't even a hint of sun peeking through. So, when we flew through the clouds, we were completely engulfed in white nothingness; (a thick mist, if you look at it scientifically.) It was a lot like going through really thick fog; thicker than any fog I've seen on the ground.

Anyway, the awe-inspiring part was when we came out of the clouds and rose above them. As I looked down on them, I was captivated by the sight of my childhood fantasies of Heaven, and what Heaven would look like, from my perspective. It was just endless mounds of huge, fluffy, white, cottony clouds that were so thick and white, they appeared to have real substance to them, rather than just thick air!

As a child, I had thought of Heaven as being on top of the clouds, and that our days in Heaven would be spent frollicking in the clouds, running and jumping from one to another, bouncing like trampolines, and laughing and playing in them like children in a bounce-house.

Of course, I know better than that now, and I haven't had those kinds of thoughts in decades, but seeing these cloud formations beneath me brought it all sharply back into focus for me. It was a beautiful and humbling sight.

Another part of the beauty was in the sunrise, (which had only became prevalent after we came through the cloud covering. The sun was way in the distance to my far right (I was in a window seat on the right side of the plane, close to the right wing) and could only be seen just barely peeking above the cloud-horizon. That horizon was painted like a canvas with pink and purple hues, not in the clouds themselves, but in the blue part of the sky, above the clouds. It was beautiful!

Some of the formations rose high above their foundations, vertically, causing them to look like little snowman families clustered about here and there, and some--less round ones--looking like stalagmites (stalactites?) forming from the cave bottoms and rising up like upside-down icicles.

There were so many different types of formations or sizes/shapes of these clouds that it appeared to be like a Disney area or something out of Suessville. After an hour or so, the cloud cover relaxed and changed to a pinkish color. (I'm not sure if this was because of the positioning of the sun at that time, or something else.) Anyway, the formations flattened out so that it resembled a giant, fluffy pink blanket that had been draped lazily across the sky. (My guess is this has something to do with the colder weather, as we were within forty-five minutes of Chicago by then. I can consult my nephew, Devin, on this... our resident 'meteorologist-in-the-making!' He would undoubtedly know.) Devin, if you've never been in an airplane before, and you get the chance later in life, don't pass it by! You will most definitely be struck with awe and wonder if it's a cloudy day!

After the pink disappeared, the cloud cover beneath me was just miles and miles of little white mounds that resembled sand drifts in a desert. At this point in time, it looked like you were gazing out into a vast white desert, with nothing on the horizon but tons and tons of white sand--or perhaps snow!

Then, later, just a little while before we got to Chicago, the clouds dispursed a little so that you could peek through them to the ground below. It was really, really far away before we started to descend, but the closer we got to Chicago, the closer the ground got, and the more you could see. I'll attach closer ground pictures to my next post, because Billy had some good ones on his camera.

My only regret is that I didn't have a camera with me to take pictures with. And although I did bring a video camera (which can take digital pictures as well), I wasn't smart enough to charge it before I left! But... see update below!

UPDATE

(Oh, sweet! I just found some pictures on Billy's camera from a trip they took a few months back and they have some of the cloud formations--or at least something close to them--so you can kind of get an idea of what I was trying to describe!)

A Special Message For All My Fifth-Graders

Science is a wonderful thing that we've been blessed with, allowing us to do things that people could only dream about doing a few hundred years ago! Regular, ordinary people--just like my fifth graders at Horizon Academy--made scientific discoveries that led to inventions like airplanes.

I'll bet they used the "Scientific Method" to create a hypothesis about whether or not it was possible to make a vehicle that could 'fly' and also transport human beings! Through lots of testing and experimenting, the Wright Brothers (among others) ultimately succeeded in getting a craft into the air, while carrying at least one passenger! With much more scientific experimentation through the years after that, we now have the jets and passenger planes of modern-day, capable of taking us--and all of our luggage--anywhere in the world! All because someone was curious and used the Scientific Method to figure out how to take flight!

So my question to my fifth-grade students is this:
How many of YOU are going to use science to INVENT something for the world to use, to make our lives better?

Every single one of you is capable! You don't have to be a genius; in fact you don't even have to be super-smart! You just have be interested enough to ask questions and then go after the answers! Learn as much as you can in school right now so that you will be well-equipped to change the world when you're a little older.

Make it your goal to go to college so that you can learn everything you ever wanted to know about whatever interests you most; whether it's airplanes, space shuttles, computers, horses, robotics, or even comic-strip publishing! There are hundreds of things to choose from; something that interests everyone! You can do it! I believe in you!

Horizon Academy, I love you all and think of you often! Tune in later to read about my adventures in Tokyo, Japan and all over South Korea!

All my Love,
Mrs. Stark

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Photos

Lazily Draped Blanket
This is pretty much what the "fluffy pink blanket, draped lazily across the sky" looked like, only this one is white

White Desert
This is a little like what the "white desert" looked like, except that these clouds are fluffier than the ones that created my "white desert"

Suessville
The clouds that reminded me of Suessville were a lot like this formation, but rather than just one, they were everywhere--just like this, (but with variations) and as far as the eye could see!

Parting the White Sea
This is what it looked like when there was a break in the cloud cover and you could see down to the land below