Archive for September, 2007 Thousand Trails Thunderbird Preserve Thunderbird Preserve turns out to be another beautiful Thousand Trails campground. Only one problem for us is that the trees are so tall and thick that we’re unable to find a hole through them to get a decent satellite connection. This is the first time that’s happened since we’ve been on the road. Looks like we’ll be dependent on the campground WiFi this week for the internet. Neither of us are thrilled about that, but it’s better than having nothing. At least we have cell phone connection again. Today we go into Seattle for the first time. We’ve been monitoring the weather and it’s supposed to be partly cloudy. The drive in is about the same as the drives into Chicago and Detroit, although the roads are better than Detroit’s and the drivers are not as crazy as Chicago’s. One nice thing about Seattle is they have a special lane set up for cars that have more than one passenger. So if you’re driving alone you get the slow lanes but if you carpool you get to use the faster lane. They also have stop lights at the on ramps to control the flow of traffic coming into the main highway. They really put some thought into managing congestion here. Still there are lots of cars on the road and it takes longer than we think to get into the city. As we’re arriving the van starts to overheat. We park in the first parking garage we find, pop the hood and let her cool down while we go explore Seattle. Let’s hope she feels better later.
 Pike Place Market Our first stop is Pike Place Market which is already bustling with activity. At the main entrance a street singer wails his tune and the smell of fish and flowers waft through the air. Having been a florist for a dozen years or so, one of the first thing I notice are the many flower stands at the market. The flowers are crisp and fresh and the prices phenomenal. We get to do one of my favorite things today, have breakfast in the city. We decide to eat at Lowell’s restaurant in the Pike Place Market. Lowell’s is noisy and busy, the staff friendly and accommodating and the food smells great. It has three floors of seating with wonderful panoramas of the Puget Sound.
This is another one of those times where everything is perfect and I just want to sit and savor these moments for as long as I can. The atmosphere of the market, the street musicians, the bustle of people, the aromas, the food, the all you can drink coffee pot, the view out the window and of course, Parry.
 Parry Multitasking After breakfast we head across the street where Parry shops for postcards while talking with his sister-in-law, Jennifer. I smell something sweet and even though I just finished a big breakfast, I can’t help but want to taste more of the local fare. I wander down the street to the Piroshky Bakery where I order a Fresh Rhubarb Piroshky. We spend the rest of the day walking the streets, learning our way around, getting a feel for the city and waiting for the sun to come out, which it never really does.
This can be both liberating and frustrating at the same time. I love walking the streets, listening to the sounds of the city and watching people go about their lives while photographing whatever captures my attention. At the same time, because it is so unstructured, I get this nagging feeling that I’m missing something somewhere else and time is running out.
 B-Girl What I really want is to be present in the flow… to be aware of that moment when the light, the composition, the photographer are all in perfect sync and what emanates from this is the true art of photography, not just the craft. Despite my misgivings about these more unordered ventures, they do have value. I learn things about myself and my subconscious through the images that show up in my camera at the end of the day. We don’t stop to eat another meal today, but we do take a break at a Starbucks for coffee and a snack. One of the things that’s really hard to miss in Seattle is Starbucks. I swear there’s at least one on every block. I wonder how many Starbucks there are in Seattle? We stay in Seattle until 4:00 pm, then decide to drive back to camp before our parking garage fee jumps to the next price point. We cross our fingers that the van will make it home OK. Luckily we have no problems. Tomorrow is supposed to be another good weather day so as long as the van holds out, we’ll be back in the morning to do it all again. Here are a few shots from today:  Washington Mutual Tower I  Washington Mutual Tower II  Washington Mutual Tower III  Shades of Chicago  Seattle Monorail  Fellow Travelers Parry gets mad when I give money to people on the street, but as we’re walking we run into some fellow travelers on their way to San Francisco. I figure if they allow me to take their photograph I owe them something in return. Hope they make it.  Street Scene  Bread of Life Mission  Man On the Street  Dolphin Portal  Window Display  Killed by Ninjas  No Trespassing  Parry’s Long Lost Twin  Christmas Pig  Prison Pig  Hungry Seagulls  Where is Art?  This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License. |