Seattle

After Olympic National Park I headed to yet another large city: Seattle! I drove to Bainsbridge Island, and caught a ferry across to the big city. It was my first time on a ferry, and it was mildly disconcerting. Not sure exactly why. It did however, provide for a decent view as I approached the city:

 

I’ve come to realize that I am not a big-city boy. I dislike being surrounded by skyscrapers and high-rises. I dislike the press of people. But I happened to have a friend in Seattle, an old room mate of my sister, Leslie:

 

I spent thursday and friday night hanging out with this lovely young lady and her roomies/friends/boyfriend. Went to an old part of down called Ballard to have drinks one night. Had THE BEST thai food of my life the next night.

 

Scrappy got to play with some other dogs while we were there, even if Joey just growled at him for the entire time:

 

Of course, I had to go down to Pike’s market, just to see what all the fuss was about. It wasn’t my cup of tea. The whole thing seemed like a big tourist trap, although I did end up finding a decently priced used book store, and bought a copy of ‘Travels with Charley’ by John Steinbeck.

 

Beyond the market and the fun with friends, it was a chill day in the city with Scrappy, laying on a couch reading a book. Pretty sweet:

Super thanks to Leslie for showing me around the city and that little slice of life.

 

 

And then I left for the weekend. Destination: Pullman Washington

Some random shots

No order:

 

 

And here is something pretty.

Behind the Eyelids presents...Kelly McFarling from Peter Lee on Vimeo.

Olympic National Park

Four thirty in the morning and the dog wakes me up again. This is becoming a pattern. I open the door of the 4runner and let him run around the parking lot of the walmart we slept at. There’s nobody around at this time of day, except for the trucker who spent the night with his big diesel idling.

 

I wake up, shuffle everything in the truck back around to ‘driving mode’ and round the dog back up. We are on the road toward Olympic National Park, but of course we are far too early. I sit and wait for the ranger to show up, I hike a quick quarter mile and see a wonderful waterfall:

 

Around nine thirty the ranger is there and opens his booth, I buy a national parks pass, I ask about local trails to check out and campgrounds to sleep at. Then it’s up the road to Whiskey Bend trail. The dog sits in the truck, he’s not allowed on the trails in the parks. A boring day for him.

 

I hike down to the Elwha river, I go to a place called ‘Goblin’s Point’. The water is a hue of blue that is hard to describe or capture. It is gorgeous as it careens into the rocks:

 

I try to keep my eyes out for the smaller things, like the early signs of fall. A few leaves changing colors already this time of year:

 

I explore a bit, but I don’t have all day. I have to get back to the truck to let the dog out. I need to eat something. I didn’t realize it until now, but I forgot to eat anything this morning. I talk to a ranger on the way out, he says to check out ‘hurricane ridge’. With the sky as clear as it is today it should be a decent view. He tells me they are ripping the dams out of the Elwha river soon, no more lakes. The lakes, while man-made and environmentally unnecessary, do have a certain beauty to them:

 

I pull out the map and make my way to Hurricane Ridge. it is quite a ways, at a totally different entrance to the park. I make the long drive, I stop along the way to let the dog chase sticks. I am pelted by rainbow bugs as I step out of the truck. Hard to be mad, when they culprit is so photographic:

 

We get to the ridge, it is everything they said it would be. The mountain range stretches out in front of me, and all around me.

I try everything I know to capture it. I try a panoramic, which doesn’t do it justice:

 

I try some HDR treatment, which still can’t capture all the dynamic range:

 

I include people in my shot, to try and give some sense of scale:

 

None of it works. There is no way to properly capture it. It’s not a problem of having the right lens, or the right camera. My mind cannot capture it, and until that can happen there is no way to make a camera do it. These things rarely happen just by accident.

 

I hike some more, I take the ridge trail. It shows the road I came in on, and by which I shall be leaving shortly:

 

I get back to the truck, I take the dog down to the campground and pick out a spot, pay my twelve dollars, set up camp. He is antsy, so we jog through the entire campground. My legs are tired as I cook my dinner over my little camp stove.

 

It’s funny how my ideas of luxury have changed. Now, having a campsite where I can cook in the open on a table seems luxurious. Setting up the tent and stretching out as I sleep seems luxurious. We still wake up at four thirty, I’m still wet and cold and covered in dog hair, but at least I’m not in an asphalt parking lot. It’s a good day as we head out of the park, and make our way to Seattle.

Uh oh, falling behind. Like, REALLY behind.

So this will be a short, to the point, picture filled post of the last week or so.

 

After the Redwoods, I went to Brookings, OR. Just one night there as a stopover before heading to Eugene. But I did get a lovely photo of the coast at sunset:

 

As I headed north from Brookings, the 101 got crowded with RVs and Boats, so I headed inland to Eugene for the weekend. Eugene was a very laid back town, not much going on. I found a few coffee shops, and a few parks, and pretty much spent the entire weekend either walking or reading. It was a very nice relaxing weekend. Not much photography, except for one alley with graffiti:

 

And a few garden areas with flowers:

 

From Eugene it was a drive up and almost out of Oregon to Astoria.

Along the way we saw some sea lions:

 

 

And saw a cool shipwreck at Fort Stevens state park:

 

Astoria was cute, I found an awesome coffee shop to hang out at, had an Elvis burger at a local brewery (beef + peanut butter is GREAT!), and checked out the ‘Voodoo lounge’ for a drink. All in all, it was a cool place. And they have a STELLAR bridge over the Columbia river:

 

They also have a column, which was kind of odd:

 

From Astoria we went to see Mt. St. Helens. It was a bit out of the way, but I figured I should see it since I was over here. Isn’t she beautiful?:

 

Oh yeah, but there was fog over the mountain. For the two hours that I sat around waiting there was fog.

 

So then it was time to move on to Olympic National Park. Which I am still processing photos for, so that will be the next post.

Just the facts

So far:

Gallons of gas purchased: 176.59

Cost of all gas purchased: $547.88

Total miles driven: 3106

Average MPG: 17.59

Redwoods

I drive through the Avenue of Giants. I am overwhelmed. I take a million pictures, but they all look the same. I delete most of them. I could spend years in this park, I don’t know what else to say.

Too many damn tourists

Such a backwards thing for me to say, but it’s true. The coast is loaded due to the labor day weekend, so I’ve headed inland. Current plan is to hang out in Eugene Oregon for the weekend. Before the crowds showed up (or the sun for that matter) the day was quite beautiful:

Pic of the day

did I mention that I started a 365 project with this trip? Yeah, it’s been mostly boring pictures since I forget until the last moment. But yesterday I managed a slightly less boring one:

Fort Bragg

Unfortunately while in Frisco I managed to come down with a minor case of the flu. As I drove northward the fever made me a bit disoriented. I zigged when I should have zagged, and shortely thereafter found myself lost totally on some random county road. Eventually I found a place to pull the truck over and crawled in the back for a night filled with fever dreams, sweats, and tossing and turning. Three AM rolled around and I decided to keep moving.

 

When I pulled into Fort Bragg I knew it would be the place for me for the night. I knew this because gas prices were only $3.04! An easy ten cents cheaper than any other city so far. I walked around downtown, went to the local beaches, found the local parks, took Scrappy to a dog park to play with other four legged furries, and just generally slowed down a bit. It was great. I treated myself to a dinner of pizza and wine, and it was awesome. I made small talk with another traveler who was in the process of writing a book, very interesting to me. After dinner I went down to the beach to take sunset photos. It was cold, but the scenery was hard to beat:

 

Then it was time to turn in for the night. I didn’t see any ‘no parking overnight’ signs around, so just went ahead and parked downtown. Didn’t get hassled by anybody, slept like a log. Woke up, went to a local coffee shop, did some laundry, went to a park to work out, went and bought sandwich goods at the store, and just generally had a chill day. And I liked it enough I decided to stay a second night. I went to a local dive bar, found out wednesdays are DEAD in Fort Bragg, played a few games of pool by myself, then parked downtown again for the night.

 

Then it was off to the redwoods.

Well, one good thing about all these travelling photos

Suddenly my photo stream is getting a lot more views. :) From forty per day before the trip started, now up to two or three hundred a day. I’m finally popular!

Pic of the day

Silent sentries of the sunset:

A weekend in San Francisco

I got to San Fran mid-day, and my friend here didn’t get off work until eight, so I had some time to kill. I drove around downtown for three hours, boggling at big buildings and crazy hills, crazy traffic, crazy people. I went to Golden Gate Park to let the dog run off some energy. I went over the Golden Gate Bridge to the ‘scenic outlook’. This outlook provides one of the worst angles I can imagine on such a nice long and lovely span. I am unimpressed:

 

I call my friend Courtney to let her know I’m in town, she tells me of a better view. I'm thrilled with how much better it is:

 

The dog and I sit at this beach for hours, reading, writing, photographing, walking. Totally relaxing. We even watch a hawk as it sits stationary in the sky, riding a current of air off the ocean:

 

Night falls and while I wait for her to get off of work she recommends a nearby hike, which gives a scenic look over the city:

 

Once she is home we walk to Dolores park which is the base of operations for all the fun shenanigans in the area. We sit and drink a few beers, catch up, and then walk home. The next day we return to the park to do some slack lining. I’m no good, but the folks she hangs out with sure are:

 

While we are at the park we are also treated to a capoeira group:

 

As well as an impromptu dance party:

 

Another day, we go to Albany Bulb, which had some fascinating sculptures:

 

Thanks a million to Courtney and her awesome roomates for having me and the dog over for the weekend and showing me around the place!

My hostess: