So what's with this new picture thingy?

So this is where I went for the weekend...

You all remember this no doubt. This image is still circulated, though not nearly as often as it was the year it occurred. It's the "Lompoc Flag," from 2002.

Lompoc is a little town of 50,000 that sits northwest of Santa Barbara on the California coast, a scant 6 miles from the Pacific Ocean. It represents the western-most edge of civilization in the continental United States (find a map of California, locate Point Concepcion and look north a bit...you can't miss it). As such, it's not surprising that the Air Force has been running missile-test operations at Vandenberg AFB for decades, but a few miles away.

That's all good and well you say, but what of the flag? Every year in June, Lompoc hosts it's annual Flower Festival. The city has been known for years as the flower seed capital of the world. That farming operation and the presence of the AFB are what the city is built around. The festival is simply the local version of every-town's annual fair.

With 9/11 still echoing in the spring of '02, one of the local fields was planted with the design you see here, and unveiled in time for that year's festival. The picture was taken by an aerial photographer and the rest is history.

From what I gather in speaking with locals (i.e., my in-laws), the picture and email that distributed it has brought more attention to this picturesque little community than any promotional campaign ever could. As for me, I have another reason for enjoying the photo.

I have gotten a kick for the last 3 years of pointing out to people that said in-laws used to live nearby. Were the picture larger, I'd tell you to follow the road there on the right down about a 1/4-mile, head west another 1/2-mile where you'd turn into the little development built along the north-face of the hills there. Their backyard had a view of the entire Lompoc Valley; talk about picturesque!