Seattle 2010

In August 2010, I spent two weeks in the Pacific Northwest, both for work and vacation. Here are some photo highlights from my time off.

Click on the thumbnail images to get larger ones (around 100-300K). Click on the "huge" link to get the full size pictures (around 3M). Around 35 pictures included.

Part I: Seattle and WA vicinity
Part II: Downtown Portland, OR
Part III: Japanse Garden and Rose Garden
Part IV: Oregon Coast
Part V: Mt. Hood
Part VI: Spruce Goose
Part VII: Ann Arbor, MI

Portland to Seattle on Amtrak

After spending a week in Portland for work, I headed up to Seattle to visit my friend Neel and his family. I decided to take a "real" train.

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A couple of shots of the train station in Portland.

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The Amtrak Cascades train at the station.

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And two shots of the inside of the train. I decided to splurge and spend the extra $14 to take the business class train. It was fine and I had a single seat. It took 3 hours

The trip back was a little different. The business class was booked, so I had the normal coach class, which was fine. Instead of 3 hours, it took 6, because the train hit two people, killing one of them (here's another article on the accident). While I don't like blaming the victims, it seems like they were standing on the tracks for a while, WHILE both trains were blowing their horns. I know, it sounds callous, but if a train is coming, get off all train tracks! In this case there were only 2 tracks, with wide areas on either side of them. There was no reason to remain on any tracks. This was completely avoidable, which to me is the saddest part.

So anyway, 2 train rides, 2 people hit, I'm averaging 1 per ride. Somehow trains have failed to grab me as the ideal form of transportation.

Seattle, Pike Place Market, etc.

I got to Seattle, and Neel picked me up. We did some birthday activities for his 6 year old son, involving lots of kids and infatable plastic things you can bounce on. Neel and I also went downtown to Pike Place Market, a very cool, fun place. I didn't take many pictures of it though.

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There was a fun squid sculpture hanging from the ceiling of the indoor portion of the market. The other two are things hanging from the ceiling of a weird, tourist place. The first is a Whale Oosik, which is the penis bone (who knew?) and the second is some strange, scary thing that looks like a combination of Dr. Seuss and Stephen King.

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Since it was Seattle, it was a gray, overcast, rainy day. I took a couple shots of Neel paying for parking, and then one of the side of the Market from the parking lot, through the car windshield. I like the blurry, rainy effect. Oh, the car two in front of us didn't understand that you pay at the kiosk (where Neel was paying in the first 2 pictures) and then go to the gate. The car couldn't get through, and the cars behind it (including us) had to back up, so he could get out and pay. I'm sure there are signs around, but there aren't any as you approach the gate that say "DON'T GET IN THIS LINE UNLESS YOU HAVE ALREADY PAID FOR PARKING AT A KIOSK BY THE SIDEWALK!!!" There was no one behind us, so only 2 cars had to back up, so it wasn't too bad, other than the 2 minutes it took for the car to figure out you couldn't pay there (which let me get a picture).

Snoqualmie Falls Park

On Sunday, Neel and I drove to Snoqualmie Falls Park, about an hour away, which as the name implies, is a park and has a cool waterfall.

Here's a video of the falls.

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A shot of the entrance, a map, and the actual falls from an upper overlook.

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Two shows of the falls from the upper overlook. We were then going to take the hiking trail down, but discovered that the trail is actually closed, for the next three years. Blast! I had a train to catch that night (the Cascades Killer) and couldn't wait that long. So we went elsewhere.

Twin Falls Trail

Well, the hell with this single waterfall thing. We decided to double our fun and go to Twin Falls Trail. It wasn't too far away, and is a hiking trail.

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We got to the trailhead, which is just an area where a dozen cars had parked. The first shot is the trail map. We decided since we had around 30-45 minutes left, we'd just hike to the first few markers, i.e., points 3 or 4 on the map (it starts to go considerably uphill after that). And thus we did.

The second and third shots are from (most likely) the Lower Falls Viewpoint. I think we turned around just shy of the bridge.

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More shots of the Lower Falls Viewpoint.

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Two shots of me and Neel. Both were done using the "hold-your-arm-out" method, though with me looking to the right in the first picture, it's a litlte less obvious that I'm taking the picture. The third picture is of the river (the South Fork Snoqulmie River) on our way back to the car.

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More shots of the river. There were a lot of people around, off to the right, but I took some pains to keep them out of the frame.

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A shot of Neel by the river (he was taking a picture), and looking to the right (again, avoiding people). There were probably a dozen people and a few dogs around.

And then we headed back. Had something to eat, they dropped me off at the train, and the train hit two people.

Part I: Seattle and WA vicinity
Part II: Downtown Portland, OR
Part III: Japanse Garden and Rose Garden
Part IV: Oregon Coast
Part V: Mt. Hood
Part VI: Spruce Goose
Part VII: Ann Arbor, MI

Back to Frank's photos.

This page last modified Sep 03, 2012.
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