Orbital View: Scenic Sauvie
I took this shot on Thursday during my flight back to D.C. from Portland, Oregon, where I was working remotely for a week while visiting family for my birthday—and I got the perfect gift of unseasonably sunny weather. This pastoral view along the Columbia River is just north of the city, and only until I read the GPS location on my iPhone photo did I realize I was just over Sauvie Island—the largest island along the Columbia and one of the largest river islands in the U.S. The northern half of Sauvie is a wildlife refuge and the southern half has scattered rural homes. It’s also a great place to run wild and eat wild strawberries, as my niece Freya can attest:
For a wonderful little tribute to Portland, check out Rosa’s recent Orbital View on the “City of Roses,” her hometown. (The note made my mother a little verklempt; she moved to the city a decade ago, married a Portland native and—after 50 years of the Air Force and then Army determining where she moved every few years—put down roots in Portland for good.) For an even better in-flight photo departing Portland, check out Rosa’s crystal-clear view of Mt. Hood just east of the city. If you’re a fellow Portlander and have an aerial photo above the city or surrounding area, please send it our way.
(America by Air archive here. Submission guidelines here.)
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