A photographer's tour
SeaTac to Cannon Beach

Keith's travels in the Pacific Northwest - September-October 2010

It's time to head South on the first part of this US trip.

Yesterday's motel coffee was courtesy of Days Inn - today we're in Cannon Beach for a few days to have a bit of a rest by the sea.

We also have teabags, a kettle and milk, so a decent cup of tea to kick off the day

In fact I'm writing this at 7am (Tuesday), since with the time difference, this is the only occasion I'm ever comfortable in getting up for sunrise. That said it seems pretty grey outside this morning.

Anyway back to the day in hand.

This photo-diary covers some of my travel photography from a driving trip starting at Seattle, Washington in September/October 2010. I've regularly suggested friends to take their vacations here, or just a road trip along the Pacific coast to photograph some of the scenery. If you've any questions about the hotels/inns/motels where I stayed, then please do feel free to drop me a line.

What's the Washington weather like? What's the Oregon weather like? National Weather Service radar (Pacific Northwest) What are the roads like? (WA)	Daily pages 26th September 2010: UK to Seattle 27th: South to Cannon Beach 28th: Cannon Beach/Seaside 29th: Ecola 30th: Cape Kiwanda / 3 Capes 1st October: South to Florence 2nd: Florence 3rd: Yachats 4th: Heading North 5th: Long Beach, Washington 6th: Cape Disappointment 7th: Port Townsend 8th: Over to Seattle 9th: Beads in Seattle 10th: not a lot... 11th: in Seattle 12th: Flying Home

The airport we arrived at is called SeaTac - short for Seattle/Tacoma I suppose. However the area around it is, in a fit of original naming also called Seatac.

I've noticed this propensity for uncomplicated naming quite often in the US, some of the most unsubtle being towns where roads are names after letters or numbers depending on whether they run east/west or north/south.

I suppose it makes it easier to learn to be a taxi driver than in the UK, and easier for fares to spot if they are being taken on the scenic route.

Setting out from Seatac, we headed south on I-5. Quite a straightforward drive down to Longview and across the Columbia river?

Not so fast - seems we were going past Shipwreck beads, so a detour to the largest bead shop in the world.

Karen makes bridal and sterling silver jewellery, and I'm told that this is a very important place to find interesting beads and other assorted gewgaws.

Note - If you are a UK wedding photographer, I'm building a county by county directory of UK wedding services (inc. photography) for Karen's site when we're back (I don't do wedding work myself). What she needs for the site are good quality links and referals to brides who want great looking jewellery. Drop me an email if you're interested - priority given to good quality links, not some hidden 'links page' that no real visitor ever looks at ;-)

As you can see, it's a bit like the bead equivalent of the storage warehouse at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark

Meanwhile, as an ex geologist I was wondering how much mercury you could extract from the (supposedly) cinnabar beads, and if various face creams/make-up/scent might speed up the process.

I don't think I've seen beads used like this as a means of dispatching someone? I think I've been watching too many crime thrillers...

My own curiosity running low, I settled for a huge coffee.

Of course, this being near Seattle I had to negotiate the choice of milk and minefield of flavourings that can be added.

Then we also have the assortment of cup sizes.

'Ordinary milk' and 'that huge one' solved most problems, whilst my one previous run-in with 'Flavors' led me away from that path.

A perfectly acceptable cup of coffee :-)

However, all good things come to an end, so I found Karen and we headed off.

Time for some lunch, and I remembered a diner at a junction further down I-5

It's called 'Spiffy's' and is not far from where you turn off to go and look at Mt. St. Helens.

One thing I knew would interest Karen was the huge range of pies.

Then onwards to the big bridge at Longview.

This from the Oregon side, shows just how industrialised some bits of the Columbia river are.

Then along to Astoria, where there is another huge bridge

If you've followed some of my travel blogs before, then you'll notice that the in-car shots (14mm 2.8L II on Canon 1Ds3) are from the passenger side. I'm not now allowed to drive and take pics at the same time, as before ;-) -probably not a bad thing...

Although the weather looks fine in the shot above, by the time we got to Cannon Beach, there was a bit of sea-mist drifting in.

This the view from our room at 5pm

By Sunset (~7pm) there was quite an interesting light.

You can just see 4 pelicans below the sun.

Looking up the beach - quite a few people out taking photos

Or trying to get the light just right

Or just wondering what that huge camera was that I'm using.

Here's a detailed crop from an image (200mm 1/1250s @f7.1) where I've underexposed to catch the slight glimpse of the green flash. sometimes this is clearly visible to the naked eye - not tonight

Or you could just go for a run...

Anyway, darkness settled in so we went round the corner for a meal and a rather good pint of bitter (note for UK beer drinkers - excellent micro brews in the Pacific North West)

That's it for the 27th. Not sure what we're doing on the next day yet.

>> Next Day >>

26th September >> 27th September >> 28th September >> 29th September >> 30th September >> 1st October >> 2nd October >> 3rd October >> 4th October >> 5th October >> 6th October >> 7th October >> 8th October >> 9th October >> 10th October >> 11th October >> 12th October

Previous travel photo diaries/blogs...

October 2008 - Travelling in Colorado (picture from 'Photo-blog')	'Cascade Colours' from Keith's Autumn 2007 visit to Oregon/Washington
The North Californian coast - part of Keith's April 2007 tour	The photo above is a sample from Keith's photo-diary of his 2006 visit to Colorado