10.17.13 : back down the washington coast.

I had to give myself the goal of completing my "up the coast" blog posts before the year's end because of my recent slacking tendencies. In my defense, my life is just about as busy and exhausting as I've ever known it to be right now, so the last thing I want to do when I come home from a long day of work is sit in front of my computer screen and edit photos. Alas, it's my day off and I've found myself with copious amounts of laundry needing to be done, so I'm forcing myself to edit while I finish that task.

We're picking up in Washington on day nine of my second half of the coastal trip. It was my second to last day and a very full one at that. I left the cozy town of North Bend to head west and back to the coast. Taking a ferry across seemed like my best option, and I caught one just north of Seattle. Again, I kept up with my tradition of stopping for anything that looked even a little bit interesting, which put me very behind schedule and found me getting into my camp destination just before the sun disappeared.

10.15.13 : snoqualmie falls.

On my way to North Bend, Washington, I swung over to nearby Snoqualmie Falls to check out yet another waterfall (I have a weakness for them, ok?) and was surprised to find it right there on a busy road with a hotel built looking down upon it. I guess I got spoiled by the hike-in spots I'd been previously visiting. The falls were gorgeous, however, and I enjoyed the fact that they seem to be fairly famous for its appearance in the tv show, Twin Peaks (which I'd heard of, but never seen). Having added a new tv show to my docket of Netflix shows to watch this winter, I moved on, satisfied that I'd crossed yet another waterfall off my list.

This is my attempt at "free-lensing" – a technique that involves removing your lens and holding it freehand to replicate a tilt-shift effect. I found my results to be more like a pin-hole camera than a tilt-shift lens. I suppose that means I need more practice.

10.12.13 : cascade falls

I skipped Washington. Don't worry, I definitely did the Washington coast, but I had a goal to be in British Columbia for their holiday weekend (Canadian Thanksgiving!) and my plan just didn't leave enough time to do the Washington coast on the way up.

Having visited the greater Vancouver area three times in the last few years, I'd have thought I'd exhausted the local waterfalls, but in fact, there was at least one I hadn't seen yet, so my friend Jeff and I headed that way on my first day there.

It was a perfectly beautiful fall day, only tainted by some unfortunate graffiti on the rocks surrounding the falls…left for us by the class of 2014. I'll try to avoid a soapbox rant, but seriously people…if there's one thing that should be left untouched by the hands of miscreant youths, it's nature. Go graffiti something manmade and leave my waterfalls alone!

Ok. Rant over.

I also have to give some photo credit to Jeff, whose hand is pictured in the photo of him taking a photo of me on my iPhone (a gal's gotta Instagram). He came up with that one all on his own.