Darek + Stacie

Crispy decided that it might be fun to eat lunch in the Space Needle. Other than feeling sick from moving while eating and riding the crazy elevator down, it was pretty awesome.

This photo was actually taken after lunch, but I’m going to post it first, so you can see how high up we were.

This is what the view looked like when we first got up to the top:

You sit on the part that spins around and the wall next to you doesn’t move. Kathleen is actually slowing moving backwards:

It was really cool to watch the fog burn off as we spun around the city:

The food was really really really yum. My mouth is watering just thinking about it…

Even the butter looked pretty:

Kathleen says “stop taking my freaking picture so I can eat my sandwich:”

People put notes on the ledge so there was always something new to read. First, stating the obvious:

Something a little more clever, I guess:

We never found out if we won or not:

Ah, everyone’s favorite city…Hawaii:

The sky getting clearer and bright blue:

Afterward we went out to the observation deck to look around Seattle. We took our photo in the reflection and suddenly everyone around us was going “that’s the coolest thing ever!” and doing the same thing. It was really weird.

Beware of the Fremont Troll. He eats people.

Auto-correct is funny:

Fun times.

In most parts of the country, when traffic has to stop and wait for something, people freak out. But in Washington, people just turn off their cars and go “whatever.” We spent a lot of time waiting for drawbridges and construction to do their thing. I took a picture whenever we were stopped.

This was, by far, the worst. We waited for something like half an hour on this barge that was making its way veerrryyy sllooowwlly toward the bridge. And I really had to pee. Really badly. And everyone else was like, “whatever.”

Driving up the mountain, waiting for trucks to move some dirt around or something:

One lane was closed for roadwork, so we had to wait for the cars from the opposite direction to make their way in the one open lane:

As luck would have it, we kept missing the previous convoy and ended up being in the front each time:

This is in Forks. Again, only one lane was open:

This one happened just after we’d taken a wrong turn:

This was again when we had missed our road and had to turn around (the roads in WA don’t make much sense):

And everyone else was just like, “whatever.”

Although we drove across a bridge to get to the Olympic Peninsula, we took the ferry from Bremerton to get back to Seattle. I’m a little iffy on boats – I get motion sickness in a serious way. I’ve found that being outside is better than being inside, so we rode on the outside part. Unfortunately, it was freezing. But it was totally worth it. Crispy planned it so that we were on the ferry as the sun was setting.

Mount Ranier:

Another ferry heading in the opposite direction:

We could see jellyfish under the water, it was pretty cool (not pictured, so don’t look too hard):

I was really worried this guy was going to poop on my head. Luckily he didn’t:

I have the best friends in the whole world. They stood in front of me to block some of the wind since I was freezing and couldn’t be inside:

So pretty!

Getting into Seattle:

Some more photos from La Push. I feel like these capture the feeling of the place much better than the color pictures, but that might just be me or the mood I was in at the time.

(disclaimer: I am not a great travel photographer, nor will I ever claim to be one.)

I loved checking out the coast as well. We went to La Push and saw the sea stacks and the ocean in general. I decided I like beaches when they’re gray; there’s just something very peaceful and dramatic about them.

La Rocks (with La Sea Stacks in the background):

La Moss:

I may have gotten a little carried away with this mossy area…

Look – a fork in Forks! (actually Kathleen said it was probably a spoon, which makes more sense, but I thought a fork was funnier).

I wonder how far leaves travel sometimes.

La Seaweed:

La Flowers:

La Friends (this is pretty much the summary of the entire trip):

(hi, I’m a professional photographer, and I don’t know how to get faces in focus…)

This is where we ate lunch. It was actually pretty good, considering.

So big.

I can never remember what these are called (foxglove maybe? maybe not):

I actually have more photos from La Push but I’ll save them for another day.