The Ferry to Seattle

I was made fun of by Mom, Dad, and Veronica for having never been on a ferry before. But the joke was on them; while they were laughing at me, I was laughing at the fact that they thought I'd been on board ferries before, but really, when would that have been? TX is not known for ferries, and that's what the Bay Bridge was for in MD. So, we all had fun on my first water bus adventure, despite the fact that it was FREEZING cold. My TX blood is going to have to thicken really quickly as I've reached the pitiable state where 70 degrees is cold. Pathetic huh?

At last, back to the ocean! I'm a firm believer that the prominent feature of wherever you're born gets into your system, never to fully leave it. Having been born in MD and spending the first eight years of my life on an island, the ocean is what entered my system. I loved getting to a place where I could smell the saltwater and hear the seagulls. Even more fun, I got to see quite a few starfish. I didn't realize how much I missed it until I took a huge breath of the salty sea air and sighed. People looked at me like I was completely nuts, but I so didn't care. For those of you who have been away from something you love, you know what it's like to come back to it. I couldn't get enough! So, I loved the freezing ferry!

I did have a video of the ferry, but all you could hear was the wind whipping across the microphone. As you can see, it was a bit cloudy, but not so much that you couldn't see the Seattle skyline from a good ways out. It was the lack of sunshine combined with the ferocious wind that made it so cold. But I still loved being out on the water again. It was an amazing feeling!

This should give you an idea just how windy it was. More than once, my sweater was in my face and Veronica's bandanna almost flew away. And they talk about the wind in TX! I have to say, not everything is bigger in TX. While in WA, we discovered flowers, wind, pumpkins, and yogurt that were all bigger than they are in the hometown Super S. But the wind could definitely blow across that water with nothing to stop it. I was trying to keep my teeth from chattering. Weather notwithstanding, I wouldn't have traded it for the world.

Being the Frasier fan that I am, it was fun to see the real-life Seattle Skyline. As it got closer and closer, I kept looking for the Space Needle in the middle of all the skyscrapers (thank you inaccurate opening credit illustration). To my surprise, it's a good distance away from the main skyline. I happen to be covering it in this particular picture. Ah well, it's still a super fun shot. Dad says this is one of the pictures where I look the happiest. And thank you transition lenses, you can't even see my eyes, despite the shade my bill provided. As we got closer to the port, it became brighter and brighter, so I was thankful for my "sunglasses." Contrary to popular belief, they came in quite handy during our trip. I guess we lucked out with the weather because it only rained twice the entire week we were there (and it is rainy season).

There it is at last. We did get fairly close to it, but never actually made the time to go up in the famed Space Needle. Being terrified of heights, I have to admit that I was actually okay with that. The more time I have to prepare myself for that experience, the better. I hear it is an absolute "must-do" though, so eventually I'll get the courage to do it. I am actually looking to spending some more time in Seattle. The twenty minutes we were there, it looked like it could be a lot of fun. We wanted to stop by Pike's Place Market (we settled for a quick pass by on the way to drop Dad off at the airport), but that was also relegated to a future visit. Oh well, at least we can better plan for next time.

This was by far the best shot I got of the skyline. It was fun approaching the city from Puget Sound. It's funny actually because on one of my bookmarked favorites, I've got a picture of an orca right about where that buoy is. Unfortunately it wasn't there today, but there will be plenty of time to see those once we're up there for good. But until then, I'll content myself with being just a bit warmer than I was on that trip. Brrrrrrrrrrrr....so cold!