CHANGE OF SCENE

This is a travel day for us. Our original plan would have put us in Vienna right about now but Covid travel restrictions in Europe made that impractical. So, change of plans. We're off to Seattle today where we have friends, there is lots to see and do and photograph, and it's cool and moist (which St. Louis is not). This picture was taken a few years ago looking up at the Space Needle from the Dale Chihuly glass museum and garden.          

Not Always Colorful

Seattle is, after all, a very wet, gray city much of the time. The Chihuly glass flowers in the top picture are brilliant (as usual) orange-yellow. The Space Needle in the background is white with a gray core. These photos have more of the feel that was around on Saturday, when it rained on and off all day.

We did go up to the top of the Space Needle, as we have many times before. It's required. And every time we do it I take a version of the second picture, weather permitting: the towers of downtown, the baseball and football stadiums in the lower right, and Mt. Rainier looming in the south. It's gonna blow someday. Then the skies will really be gray.         

Where The Wild Things Are

Nice to be back in the Northwest. It's been a few years. Didn't get my shot of Mt. Rainier from the plane - way too cloudy. But the top shot is okay, taken somewhere over eastern Washington.

And I think we got a pretty good hotel room.

            

Tall Things

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Carolyn and our local friend Jessie went to a King Tut show at the Pacific Science Center the other day while I wandered around shooting. A ride to the top of the Space Needle was in order. Although the day was cloudy, like it usually is here, the ceiling was high and Mt. Rainier was in full view. I took this shot from the Needle's top.

The mountain is often covered in the mists. When it's clear, locals sometimes say "Rainier is out today!" It is a monstrous beauty. Still an active volcano, it has the potential to devastate the Seattle area. 

We spent part of yesterday afternoon at the Seattle Art Museum with Kim, proprietor of Seattle Daily Photo. She's been on sabbatical but promises to return soon with resurrection of the portal. Good thing. She's a gifted photographer. Meeting our City Daily Photo colleagues around the world has been one of the great pleasures of this project.

The bottom shot is from our hotel room window. Home late tonight.

Seattle

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I'm having hard drive problems with my laptop so getting pix uploaded and posts written has been a bit difficult. Part of today's activities was a walk through the very new museum and sculpture garden dedicated to the work of glass artist Dale Chihuly.  Lots more pictures of this to edit when we get home.

By Tonight

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St. Louis - Dallas-Ft. Worth - Seattle today.  I was surprised I didn't have more pictures of the Emerald City on Flickr since we've been there so many times in the last 30 years. This is a 2008 shot. I remember an early trip when Carolyn, the kids and I did the Seattle - Vancouver - Victoria - Olympics circuit. We showed son Andy, then 4 or 5, a cartoonish map of the city and told him we were going to Seattle. "Where's Attle's house?" he demanded. I still don't know.

Into the wilderness tomorrow.

By the way, the local heroes, our St. Louis Cardinals, pulled off a stunning come from behind victory last night. They beat the Washington Nationals, the team with the best record in baseball during the regular season. Now they advance to the National League championship against the San Francisco Giants. Go Cards!

A Last Note From Seattle

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Typically for me, I took thousands of pictures in Washington State. Tomorrow it's back to St. Louis but today I leave Seattle with a couple of visual memories. Above, the Space Needle is framed by a giant work in Olympic Sculpture Park. Below, a vendor at the famous Pike Place Market. Seattle is a city I reture to over and over again.

There are many more of my pictures of the Olympics and Seattle on Flickr. Click here.

WHAT I ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO DO: get out on the street this weekend and shoot some local stuff.

TOMORROW: back to The Lou, but with what? How about a giant catsup bottle drained of all the red color?

STL CDPB On The Road: Seattle

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We went to dinner Sunday night at the home of a friend and his wife in the Ballard neighborhood. He's a lawyer with the same kind of practice of mine and a pretty good photographer. In fact, he's the person who first told me about CDPB. Between the main course and dessert, we went to the primo overlook of downtown from Queen Anne Hill to take sunset pictures. This view is hardly original but it represents memories of this wonderful city.

WHAT I'LL PROBABLY BE DOING WHEN YOU SEE THIS: flying home to St. Louis, hunched over my MacBook, frantically editing pictures.

TOMORROW: more souvenirs of this trip until I can shoot some more home town material.

TUESDAY EVENING WEIRDNESS UPDATE: I had hoped to meet Kim from Seattle Daily Photo when I was in town but it didn't work due to a communication mix-up. But see Kim's post today here - almost exactly the same as mine above! Turns out we were on the same overlook at the same time shooting the same subject. We probably tripped over one another - there were a lot of photographers there - but didn't know who one another were. We'll work it out the next time I'm in Seattle and, of course, Kim (and all of our CDP colleagues) are always welcome in St. Louis.