Seattle, Mussells, and Beer

Now those three things are something I can get behind. Of course, it was March, and March means...cold. Not just a little cold, but screaming, 14 layers on and still shivering, cold. We even got three or four inches of snow.

But I digress. I had a permit expire that you can only get in person in Washington. So the timing of the trip was rather critical. A friend of my father's Girlfriend is a Horizon pilot and was nice enough to help us out with getting up there, which saved quite a bit of money, so my father and I headed on up for a week of trying not to freeze to death.

As always, it was a joy to be in the Seattle area. Something about the trees and ocean all coming together results in an incredibly unique environment likely not found outside the Fjords of the European North. It was cold and rainy most of the time, which pre-empted much in the way of photography, but what the heck.

As the weekend approached, we had a huge wind come down the straights, bringing with it very large waves. We hit the beach near Ebey Prairie to see what we could see.



Very strong winds - at one point they felt like they were starting to pick up the back of the car a bit, and a lot of wave and sea spray wetting down the cars and the road. Naturally there were more than a few rubberneckers around. A cold front followed the transitional winds, and the following day ended up very cold and hinting of snow.

We happened to be at Coupeville on Whidbey Island during the Mussel Fest, a weekend celebration of food and local artists. I saw a sign for a studio and on a whim turned off to take the "studio tour". The artist is a local ceramics maker, and she had an excellent rendition of red and turquoise that really caught my eye. We were treated to a quick look at her studio, and she passed the time for a few minutes with us while I looked at the various pieces she had put out. I ended up making off (after paying of course) with a neat little vase to bring back for a very reasonable price.

Naturally, we spent the evening in a tent complete with lovely ladies serving beer, fresh Penn Cove Mussels coming out of a large boiling vat of very well seasoned broth, and great live folk/blues music.

By far the best photo opportunities came at the end of the trip for me. The last day I was there, we decided to head up towards Mt. Baker to see what was up there. While the pass was closed, there were a number of excellent shooting opportunities on our way up there.

We found a nice meadow with a church overlooking the mountains and a farmhouse. By far two of my favorite photos from the trip.





We finally ended up going down a road towards a closed mountain park. Lots of shots in there, but I'm still deciding on a few of them. One that immediately caught my eye on the drive back down.



A productive trip all in all, and it definitely got me relaxed again. More photos likely once I've forgotten what they were supposed to look like.