Seattle Trip Report & Pix

“Man oh man I thought I'd never see the sun again!

The first thing I noticed getting off the plane in Seattle was the smell of pine trees and moist earth. Yum! It rained for the first day and a half. Rainy and chilly. Went to the REI out there....I swear I heard angels signing as I walked into the holy land of outfitter stores. This place was freaking huge! Ahhh....if only I'd brought a bigger suitcase! My friend Dina bought her first piece of gear - a rain/wind proof jacket. And so it begins....and so it begins...another gear slut is born. Spent much of my time hopped up on coffee - no wonder coffee is a big deal out there - all you want to do is curl up and sleep! But let me tell you, when the sun does finally show itself IT IS SPECTACULAR! What a dramatic climate - one minute its raining and hilly and foggy and retched -the next beams of sunlight are spilling out from the sky burning up the fog and surprising you with views of mountains you didn't even know existed behind the curtain of fog. It's absolutely beautiful out there. So different from the east coast.

My favorite part was the hike up Wallace falls - elevation gain is tough but the trails lack all the nasty leaves and rocks that make you slide with every step out here in NY. Talk about cake coming down. I loved it! For once my knee didn't get twisted to hell.

For days we looked for Mt rainier - that bastig remained hidden for so long I thought I'd never see it...until...the flight home looked out the window and there she was! What a sight to behold - gorgeous. And Mt St Helens with a plume of smoke coming out? Fantastic

Wish there had been an earthquake. My trip would have been complete.”

“Twinky, great pics esp the ones of the waterfalls. You do know that Washington has a rain festival. It runs from Jan 1st to Dec 31st every yr ;)”

“Damn WebShots will not let me view the 'hehehehe' picture.
You must have posted something naughty. ;-)”

“Cool! Nice Pics!”

“TwinkleToes, Your description of WA is perfect. It's magical here especially if you are a hiker. Too bad you couldn't hike on Rainier. One trip to Rainier and guaranteed you would want to move to hike the mountain again and again. That's how I felt. When Rainier is "out" at sunset, the sunset reflects on the snowcapped mountain top to make the snow appear pink. It's awesome.”

“Very nice pic of the Space Needle. I took one like that 15 years ago and have always wondered why pro photographers and publicity folks have never used a similar shot in advertising for the City.”

“OMG, lookign at those pictures made me want to move back again so bad. :)

I really, really loved WA. Every bit of it.
Thanks for sharing.”

“top dawg, what do you see WA use as photos for advertisements? The Space Needle is the thing that makes us disquishable from other cities skylines. There is a great shot of the city that can be taken with Mt. Rainier in it, and it's pretty fantastic. That should be our advertising shot.

I always see OR use their riverfront park as their advertisement. So on a trip there, I have to go take a look. The park if filled with drug pushers, and to top it off, some of them stand on this small hill with people runnning up and down it to make their deals. How obvious can you get? At least if OR is going to use that as their attraction, clean up the riverfront.”

“Twinkle, My computer is acting up, so all I get are descriptions of the pics and not the pics, but I see you went to Discovery Park. That park and Lincoln Park are my favorites.

You need to get a motorcycle. They are the first on with walk ons and bicylists to load onto the ferry and then you are guaranteed to get on, no matter how many cars are there.”

“Twinky, the pic of Mt Rainer and the other one look like flat top peaks from the view you had in the plane. I know there not but they look that way”

“wonderful photos...One day, I'll get there, but in the meanwhile, thanks for wetting the appetite and stirring the imagination.”

“Nice pix, thanks for the report. I was there for 3 weeks in August of '76. Never rained once. We came down from Alaska on a Buoy Tender. Nothing worse than stumbling out of a bar at 2:00 a.m. and finding it's still daylight.”