Leaving LAX the next day.

Matt and I are back and well rested, despite the short layover and the convention/party goers on our floor. Yup, we feel great!
We're taxiing out to 24L with this SWA 737 behind us and the LAX control tower behind them.
It's a VERY short taxi from our terminal to runway 24L, but we've received our flight numbers, loaded the computers, spoken with the passengers, completed our checklists, reviewed the departure and run the engines for the required five minutes before a takeoff. We're ready to go and get a chance to watch this Alaska Airlines 737 land on 24Right. Those mountains in the background are the San Gabriels, that form a barrier between Greater LA and the Mojave Desert and reach as high as 10,000 feet.
Cleared into position and hold on 24Left, as Alaska vacates 24Right and will cross our runway shortly and head for the gate. At the far end is Redondo Beach, with many airliner enthusiasts waiting with cameras on tripods to take our picture. I'd like to trade some of my interior shots with one of these guys for a nice takeoff shot.
We're flying the Loop 4 departure with a Dagget transition. On runway heading after reaching 5,000 feet or so, departure control gives us a left turn back around direct to the LAX VOR. Here we're climbing through 10,000 feet, lower the nose and accelerate from 250 knots (mandatory below 10,000 feet) to 305 knots, our best economy climb speed. If I forget to do this and I'm hand flying, the V Bars (pitch indicator) will drop down automatically, reminding me to lower the nose and accelerate! If on autopilot, it smoothly accomplishes this on its own. There's the airport below and to our left as we come back over the shoreline eastbound.
You can see here that Las Vegas is about 150 miles in front of us as we continue our climb to 39,000 feet.
After leveling off at our cruise altitude, ATC calls to notify us that we have traffic at 12 o"clock a thousand feet below us. We confirm this on TCAS and sure enough, there they are! I rather like this shot.
We're overhead Bryce Canyon, located on the Colorado Plateau in southwestern Utah. Settled by Mormons in 1850, this beautiful display of sandstone and shale became a national park in 1928. Due to it's remoteness, it see's far fewer visitors than Zion National Park about a half hour ahead of us and the Grand Canyon, about 200 miles off our right wing tip in Arizona. For pictures of these two Parks, search further down through my blog.
With about 40 minutes remaining in our flight, we fly over the Missouri River, south of Pierre South Dakota. "Big Muddy" stems from the Rocky Mountains in Montana, near the Continental Divide and meanders 2,341 miles before joining the Mississippi River just north of St. Louis. These two rivers make up the worlds third longest river, just behind the Nile and Amazon. In another few weeks, this will all be white and frozen! An interesting sidenote, seeing as though I've mentioned St. Louis: Opened in 1965, I've visited the St. Louis Gateway Arch on several layovers. Did you know that architect Eero Saarinen, the man who designed the famous TWA terminal building at Idlewild (JFK) also designed the arch?
And at last... runway 30 Left in Minneapolis is just ahead of us. Just a few moments ago, while on downwind turning onto a left base, we flew over the Mississippi River. After parking at gate C16, Matt and I have a four and a half hour break ahead of us. How's that for good crew efficiency? So we'll get on the tram and head over to the Mall of America for lunch and browse Barnes and Nobles for a while. I start a six day trip tomorrow and will leave you with some of my favorite airline collectibles below.