photos.ALBj.net

photos.ALBj.net → 2003 → Washington Trip, August 29-September 8, 2003

Photos from my fifth September trip (except for 2000, it was becoming annual event) to visit my brother, his wife, and my nephew in Washington state. Riley's second birthday was the occasion.

It's Riley
Bryan took this photo of Riley in July prior to our visit, but I had to include it here. It's absolutely adorable.

I thought rednecks were restricted to the southeast US
I'm not even sure what to say about this one. Seen (and quickly snapped) in a grocery store parking lot.

How many kinds of trespass are there?
I thought I was going to start taking pictures of oddball signs I saw in downtown Seattle but this ended up being the only one. The question is—what other kind of trespass is there?

Glass art on a step fountain
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Submarine museum
A Russian Cobra submarine can be toured in Seattle. We never made the trip.

Waterfall Gardens Park
The next few photos is a succession of shots in the Waterfall Gardens park—a nice little set-aside place in downtown. It made a great place to eat our lunch, at least until some guy came in and started smoking. Immediate exit, stage right.

Waterfall Gardens Park
More waterfall photo experimentation.

Waterfall Gardens Park
Slowed the shutter speed to try and blur the water.

Waterfall Gardens Park
Then tried speeding up the shutter to freeze the water.

Waterfall Gardens Park
One more blurred water attempt.

Waterfall Gardens Park
Then I moved to the other angle.

Waterfall Gardens Park
Other angle with blurred water.

Waterfall Gardens Park
Tried lighting up the trees in the foreground with fill flash. (Getting bored yet?)

Waterfall Gardens Park
Interesting artwork in the little park.

Waterfall Gardens Park
Back a little ways to show the rest of the artwork.

Seahawks stadium
The then brand-new Seattle Seahawks stadium is back there. Looked like interesting composition at the time. Not so sure, now.

Seahawks stadium
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Seattle Underground
Here come a few shots of the Seattle Underground trip. What you're looking at here is below a skylight that was placed after the sidewalk was raised to match up with where the road had been raised to.

Seattle Underground
And up on the outdoor sidewalk, looking down at the exact same skylight.

Seattle Underground
A parking garage stands where the old Hotel Seattle once stood. The arches in the wall are the remnants of the main entry to the hotel.

Seattle Underground
Inside the original first floor of a business, looking out the front windows. The brick wall outside the windows is the retaining wall that represents the edge of where the street was raised up.

Seattle Underground
If you look carefully, you can see here how the street was raised up prior to when the sidewalks were also raised. This photo is on the wall of the same former store in the prior photo.

Seattle Underground
From a viewing hole in the same old store, the owner's private "crapper" is on display!

Seattle Underground
Just some dilapidated/neglected areas below buildings.

Seattle Underground
A long underground sidewalk that was formerly the regular outdoor sidewalk.

Seattle Underground
Below some building…just viewing all the decay.

Seattle Underground
A hollowed-out wooden water pipe.

Seattle Underground
Some discarded items found underground—school desks and an old cash machine.

Puget Sound parasailer
I saw this parasailer out in Puget Sound as we were poking through Pike Place Market.

Dancing Brush
Here's our trip to Dancing Brush Ceramics Painting Studio in the town of Paulsbo where Heidi prepares to make a ceramic plate with Riley's handprints.

Dancing Brush
Riley wasn't terribly enthusiastic about having blue goopey paint on his hands.

Dancing Brush
But we tried anyway.

Dancing Brush
First print, and Riley managed to curl his thumb and smear his thumbprint a little bit. But my mom loves it. Every time she looks at the plate, she thinks about Riley's thumb.

Dancing Brush
Second print and Riley has calmed down a bit.

Dancing Brush
The second handprint turned out quite a bit better.

Dancing Brush
Then, Heidi starts adding her own touches.

Dancing Brush
First, Riley's name.

Dancing Brush video, part 1
A video of Heidi decorating the plate. Flickr limits videos to 90 seconds, so click ahead for part 2.

Dancing Brush video, part 2
The rest of the video showing Heidi decorating the plate.

Dancing Brush
The finished job, prior to firing the ceramic.

Wild Animal Park
The next day, we went to a wild animal park. Keep this photo in memory, noting Riley's demeanor.

Wild Animal Park
Prairie dog mound.

Wild Animal Park
A little bit more visible.

Wild Animal Park
Coming up on a herd of yak.

Wild Animal Park
Head-on yak.

Wild Animal Park
Yak-in-the-grass.

Wild Animal Park
Head-on llama.

Wild Animal Park
You might start noticing some pictures are hazy. I did a fair bit of shooting through our car's glass. Riley was in the car behind me.

Wild Animal Park
Up close and personal with my dad.

Wild Animal Park
"They're everywhere!"

Wild Animal Park
This zebra trotted from a good one or two hundred feet away to come see if we had any food.

Wild Animal Park
The bread supply was in the second car.

Wild Animal Park
Big ol' rhino.

Wild Animal Park
Big ol' rhino again.

Wild Animal Park
Third time's the charm.

Wild Animal Park
Throwing bread to the birds.

Wild Animal Park
Here ducky ducky.

Wild Animal Park
Several brown bears were poised for an up-close and personal view.

Wild Animal Park
Fuzzy wuzzy wuz a bear.

Wild Animal Park
Fuzzy wuzzy had LOTS of hair.

Wild Animal Park
Fuzzy wuzzy wuz all wet.

Wild Animal Park
Another pen contained a few black bears.

Wild Animal Park
This guy followed us all the way around his pen.

Wild Animal Park
Rabbits clustered all over the place outside the next rows of animal pens.

Wild Animal Park
Big cat section.

Wild Animal Park
Here kitty kitty.

Wild Animal Park
Awwww.

Wild Animal Park
Yeah, that big black blob is a leopard.

Wild Animal Park
I love the ears.

Wild Animal Park
Next up, various wild canine.

Wild Animal Park
Pretty white wolf.

Wild Animal Park
We found a lioness having a good chow-down.

Wild Animal Park
Some elk were also to be found.

Wild Animal Park
And bison.

Wild Animal Park
Lots of bison.

Wild Animal Park
LOTS of bison.

Wild Animal Park
If I remember correctly, this was a field of fallow deer.

Wild Animal Park
Remember, the second car had the bread.

Wild Animal Park
The scout then called his buddies.

Wild Animal Park
The buddies didn't take long to figure out where the bread was.

Wild Animal Park
I was a little surprised to see Canadian geese until I remembered we aren't terribly far away from Canada. :-p

Wild Animal Park
I guess we scared 'em off.

Wild Animal Park
More fallow deer.

Wild Animal Park
I tried to take a picture of a very beautiful water bird (heron?) but it flew off just as I snapped.

Wild Animal Park
One last yak got really curious.

Wild Animal Park
Back to the herd of fallow deer.

Wild Animal Park
And more elk.

Wild Animal Park
Once again, the bread is scoped out.

Wild Animal Park
"Wait, I didn't get a piece!"

Wild Animal Park
Remember the picture of Riley at the beginning of this trip? About an hour and a half later, he's a little worse for the wear!

Puyallup Fair
On Friday, we went to the Puyallup Fair. I took a couple photos in the cattle barn. Not sure why I didn't get any more. I suppose I just didn't feel there was much that was a big deal to photograph.

Puyallup Fair
"Unkee Lee—all I see is its rear end!"

Puyallup Fair
"Unkee Lee!!!"

Apple!
Bryan's a PC guy. I'm trying real hard to spoil Riley on Macs! Since he likes to see the fish screensaver I have, maybe I'll succeed!

Riley's 2nd birthday party
The culmination of the trip was Sunday's birthday party for Riley who is now 2 years old. Bryan bought a playpen that connects together with tubes and has a ball pit section. Riley loved it.

Riley loved his ball pit
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"Hey Riley…"
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"…What!?"
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Catching an escapee ball
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Whew, this thing is huge
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"I said, I want all the balls in the ball pit!"
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Guests start arriving
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Riley and cousin Madison
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Riley and cousins Madison and Devon
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Riley and cousins Madison and Devon
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Riley and Madison
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Peek-a-boo!
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Mommy and Riley
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An odd-shaped present
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A tricycle from "gramma"
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Riley's new wheels
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Riley opening his frog chair
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Frog chair
You'll better understand why froggie chair was pretty well received when you realize that Riley had two stuffed frogs that always accompanied him at bedtime.