There are several reasons I chose this photo for Alisa’s travel theme “Edge” but my favorite element is the line of Gulls patiently waiting their turn to stretch their wings and fly away.
Weekly Travel Theme: Simplify
This week Alisa’s weekly travel theme asks everyone to share what comes to mind when they think of the word “simplify“. After a day of thinking about how we’ve tried to simplify one aspect of our busy days I settled on our food choices and a photo of this pretty yellow truck at Horse Drawn Farm on Lopez Island.
Every week I purchase our fruits and vegetables from local farmers markets, I buy meat and poultry from a family run butcher shop and our friendly milkman delivers fresh dairy products all in an effort to make healthy meals that taste great while reducing the amount of additives and preservatives in our food. As a bonus, this change in our shopping habits has actually reduced our weekly food costs as we aren’t paying middle man mark-ups on many of the higher ticket items usually found in grocery stores. I make a habit of shopping local whenever possible and on Lopez we found several farms that sell fresh meat and produce directly from small markets in their barns. Visitors simply select what they want to purchase, write the items and prices on a list and leave money in a basket on the counter. This trip to Horse Drawn Farm included some fantastic pork chops, fresh greens, carrots and sweet peas for the table. We BBQ’d a wonderful, healthy meal on the deck and sat down to eat at sunset celebrating another fun family trip in the San Juan Islands.
Travel Theme: Meeting Places
There’s nothing quite like the mix of summer weather, interesting beaches and kids with plenty of imagination and time on their hands. Driftwood forts are a common sight on Lopez Island and each beach we visited had at least one great structure ready and waiting for the next group to meet up and play until bedtime…
Posted as part of the Weekly Travel Theme: Meeting Places.
Weekly Travel Theme: Purple
My sweet niece, Sophia checking out the amazing flowers on this Butterfly Bush. July 4th, 2014.
Posted as part of Alisa’s Weekly Travel Theme: Purple.
Travel Theme: Decoration
I thought this cheery beach smile from Spencer Spit State Park on Lopez Island would be fun to post as part of Alisa’s weekly Travel Theme: Decoration.
Travel Theme: Shine
Travel Theme: Cities
Alisa’s newest Travel Theme: Cities is a great excuse to post another photo from our recent visit to the top of the Space Needle. This view is looking south towards the Downtown area over Elliott Bay and one shot manages to show you a gray spring day, the Port of Seattle, a Washington State Ferry and the lower part of Downtown.
Travel Theme: Metal
For Alisa’s Weekly Travel Theme: Metal I have a small section of John Fleming’s Grass Blades installation at Seattle Center. The blades are actually segments of painted stainless steel stacked vertically to emulate the gently swaying movements of grass in the wind.
Travel Theme: Blossom
For Alisa’s new Travel Theme: Blossom I have one more photo from our spring trips to the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival. This colorful display was filled with so many varieties it looked like an enormous bouquet!
Travel Theme: Close-Up
This week Alisa’s weekly Travel Theme: Close-Up is all the encouragement I need to post another view of the unusual curved sides of the Experience Music Project Museum at Seattle Center. This museum is dedicated to the history and exploration of music, science fiction and popular culture and its unique appearance has anchored this corner of the center since 2000.
When Frank O. Gehry began designing EMP, he was inspired to create a structure that evoked the rock ‘n’ roll experience. He purchased several electric guitars, sliced them into pieces, and used them as building blocks for an early model design.
A fusion of textures and myriad colors, EMP’s exterior conveys all the energy and fluidity of music. Three-thousand panels, made up of 21 thousand individually cut and shaped stainless steel and painted aluminum shingles
, encase the outside of the building. Their individual finishes respond to different light conditions and appear to change when viewed from different angles, reminding audiences that music and culture is constantly evolving. Source – EMPmuseum.org
Travel Theme: Glow
Maybe I’m just looking for another opportunity to post a tulip picture but I can’t stop looking at these glowing red tulips under a stormy spring sky.
Yesterday I drove a very excited Ryan to Anacortes, WA to join a group of 18 middle school kids and 6 scientists for an adventure they will never forget. This lucky group will spend the next 4 days sailing a 62′ boat through the San Juan Islands while studying marine biology. The kids have been meeting for three months planning this trip under the direction of Salish Seas Expeditions and during their time on the water they will learn how to read marine charts, how to work as a team and sail the boat, as well as cook their own meals and conduct several experiments regarding shellfish habitat.
Even though the group will have an amazing time it was hard to leave Ryan at the dock and I needed the lure of one more trip to the nearby tulip fields to get me back in the car.
We can track the boat’s course around the islands on marinetraffic.com but I can’t talk to Ryan until we pick him up Sunday evening… it’s hard being out of touch!
Posted as part of Alisa’s weekly Travel Theme: Glow.
Travel Theme: Misty
I love living by the waterfront with easy access to the beach but our proximity to Puget Sound also brings plenty of misty days . In the fall we can spend weeks at a time wrapped in thick fog and even though I know the trees are turning brilliant shades of red and yellow and that the sky is bright blue above the fog line everything around us is muted, pale and quiet.
Both of these photos are from the same day in October, 2013. The first view is what greeted us as we walked into to the park and the second was our surprise as the 10 day stretch of fog finally lifted just before sunset. Some of you might remember the bright image below from my Wordless Wednesday: 10-23-13 post.
I like to think this kind of view is our reward for making it thorough the long, foggy days of October.
Posted as part of Alisa’s weekly Travel Theme: Misty.
Northwest Frame of Mind 