On my trip to India, the first leg of my flights was from San Diego to Chicago. It was a clear sunny day where I could observe the landscapes of Western and Mid-Western U.S. from the air. As we ascended from the San Diego International Airport, the plane flew along the U.S. – Mexican border. I saw the densely populated city of Tijuana, Mexico lies in front of the mountain ranges of Baja California.

These mountain ranges were just beautiful through the blue of the Earth’s atmosphere.

The landscape changed from the rocky mountains to the sandy dry deserts as the airplane flew along the U.S.-Mexican border.

And as we passed a little farther, some farm land began to appear. These farms grew out from the desert due to the water from the Salton Sea in southeastern California. (these photos are shown as I was looking south)

In the desert, I could see sand dunes in the dry deserts in between California and Arizona.

And in between the deserts, I saw human settlements and farming communities around dry rivers.

These rivers imprinted spectacular patterns on the landscape.

Lake Pleasant of Arizona:

Rivers are amazing carvers of canyons and valleys.

Can you believe that flow of water and air shaped most of the natural landscape that we see?
I wish I could stop for a little longer to enjoy these beautiful sights.

As the airplane passed by the northern part of New Mexico, we entered into flat land of America, Mid-Western U.S..

This was where it began farmland-after-farmland.

And north of the flat farmland of Mid-Western U.S., the airplane started to descend into Chicago city.

This was how downtown Chicago looked from the airplane:

The plane landed and I took off on another leg to India.