The goal of this first leg, of course, was to get to Seattle to visit my daughter and her fiance.
I've been to Seattle a few times before, and the weather has always been pretty hit or miss. However, the weather gods blessed me with some spectacular weather for this visit.
My first full day in Seattle, Friday, my daughter wanted to take me to her new favorite camera store, Glazer's. It's a great store and, if I lived in Seattle, I'm sure it would suck a fair amount of funds from my wallet on a regular basis.
I can't say I actually "needed" anything, but "need" is such an ugly word. As it ended up, I decided to buy this Nikon N50 (can you say "film"?), with a really crappy lens, for $39.00:
 |
| My very first Nikon... |
My daughter can process film in her kitchen, so we also picked up some film and some chemistry so she could process a roll I shot driving cross country. It's a bit time consuming, but it's a pretty cool set up. I'm shooting a roll on the way to back to St. Augustine, and she'll take that roll home with her and process it.
Following our visit to Glazer's, we drove around a bit. Now, in the past, this would always include a visit to the grave on Jimi Hendrix at Greenwood Cemetery in Renton. This trip, though, we elected to, instead, visit Lake View Cemetery and the graves of Bruce Lee and his son Brandon, who was accidentally killed while filming the movie "The Crow" in 1993:
From Lake View Cemetery we took a drive to Kerry Park, which offers stunning views of downtown Seattle and the Puget Sound. We decided we'd return that evening to do some photography. I'm glad we did, because I'm pretty happy with the results:
 |
| We arrived to a very crowded Kerry Park about a half hour before sunset... |
 |
| Downtown Seattle... |
 |
| As the locals might say, "The mountain is out." Mt. Rainier on an exceptionally clear evening... |
I got a lot that I'm pretty happy with, including some of Mt. Rainier. As the row flies, Mt. Rainier is about 60 miles from downtown Seattle, so getting even decent shots at that distance is rewarding. But my main focus was to photograph the Space Needle. I'd done it before, but always on cloudy days and overcast evenings. The weather had been so clear, though, that I didn't want to pass up this opportunity:
 |
| The bright area on the right side of the image is T-Mobile Park, where the Seattle Mariners play... |
 |
| Seattle's iconic Space Needle... |
On Saturday, I got a hold of my cousin Corbin, who lives not far from my daughter. We decided we'd meet up at Pike Place Market because, well, if you don't live in Seattle it's just someplace you go.
So we went:
The main part of Pike Place Market is made up of vendors selling flowers, fruit and fish. Then there are the restaurants which all seem to have an amazing view of Puget Sound:
It was good ton see Corbin. I hadn't seen him a couple of years; not since he was part of a race team competing at the Rolex 24 in Daytona. We grabbed a couple of beers and dinner, and basically spent a few hours getting caught up:
 |
| My cousin Corbin... |
 |
| Me, Corbin, my daughter's fiance Dom and my daughter Jessy... |
The funny thing is that Corbin's folks, my cousin Karen and her husband Paul, only live about seven hours from me, but it seems as though I see their son more often!
Finally, there was one more individual I needed to get to know during this visit.. He's a bit stand-offish at first but, the more you hang around, the more he warms up to you. After day two, Watson decided I was worthy enough to have him rub against my legs. By day three he was no longer dating away when I tried to pet him.
Watson's a good dude:
 |
| Watson approves. Eventually... |
As much fun as I had in Seattle, the reality is that it was coming to an end. On Sunday Jessy and I would be heading south before beginning the drive on "The Big Daddy", US-20.
The trip west was a success by every measure. Now to head east...
No comments:
Post a Comment