As promised in my other account, here are some photos from my latest trip, a long weekend in Seattle for the Northwest Passage Relay. This first one is me and my friend R, whom I'd not seen for several years. Each of us moved -- she moved to Texas for grad school, then Europe for work and back the the US for a new job, I moved to CA for work and love -- from our college town in the Midwest but kept in touch online over the years. Touristy stops are not standard fare for my vacations, but Pike Place Market was intriguing for me, as a fan of great food, and it was an easy walk from downtown Seattle. We also stopped to get a drink at the very first Starbuck's, which shares very little appearance and character-wise with the homogenized cafes popping up in strip malls all over America's suburbs; it's little more than a walk in cafe, no tables, no Wi-Fi, no CD's for sale. The PP Starbuck's has scuffed hardwood floors, a retail section with unusual varieties of coffee beans and some Seattle related memorabilia and if I remember correctly all the baristas wore black aprons, which supposedly means a higher level of expertise (or something like that).
After having dinner with R, I had a chance to meet her teacup poodles, who were simply charming, adorable, gentle and tiny (five pounds!) little dogs whose coats felt like chenille. This is me with Remus, the younger of the two. He's very much a lap dog and will happily jump into an offered lap.
Along Seattle's waterfront is the sculpture garden with many of these outsized road traffic cones, which are a familiar sight to many Detroiters every summer. I'm still not sure what was exactly the significance of these cones, but they're at least fifteen feet tall and they don't seem to be placed in any kind of order along the park.
There's so much to do in Seattle that four days wasn't nearly long enough. And that doesn't include all the activities to try along Puget Sound and outside the city -- I'm already looking forward to going back. And because I'm also falling asleep, I'll have to add more posts and phots later.....
We took a drive out to the coast from Portland on an extremely sunny day in Oregon and arrived in the town of Cannon Beach, home of the very recognizable Haystack Rock. If the name doesn't ring a bell for you, Haystack Rock is one of the largest monoliths in the world and it is often featured in movies and television commercials. It also figured prominently into the sailing scenes in the movie "Goonies." Remember that movie? 
